A Walking Dead Fanfiction: Scarlet
by Lalalalaaadedada
Summary: Anastasia was alone for months and months and often found herself talking to herself to occupy her time, then one day she hears the sound that changes that. She is then joins a group of survivors, will she be able to learn to trust them and form friendships and possibly more? Especially with the man who is so much like her Daryl? ON BREAK
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: Hi everyone. First off i want to thank everyone for stopping by to check out my first fanfic in like 5 years! So This is going to be a walking dead FanFic mostly based around the character of Daryl Dixion and my own OC Anastasia. This first chapter is short just so i can test the waters and see what you guys think about it! So let me know and please know that any and all positive and negative (Although please be nice about it) criticism. I have a plan for this which i have a plan written in a journal, but if you have requests or something you want to see let me know and I will do my best to add it in! Thanks for stopping by to read again, and I hope you enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own walking dead or any of its characters, I only own my own OC._**

Chapter 1

A New Face

Light puffy white clouds filled the big blue sky. The sun was big and bright. It was an altogether beautiful day. If you didn't know what was already going on, one would say that it was a perfect day, but that wasn't true at all. Some months ago, Anastasia had lost track of time after a while, some virius had broke out. She didn't know the details, and it seemed like it was pointless trying to figure that out now, but once infected with the virius you would become a 'zombie'. A walking, stupid, slow corspe doing nothing but walking about aimlessly, driven by one thing. The need, the most primal of needs, the need to feed.

When it first broke out, Anastasia was at the park for her friend's kid's birthday. All her friends were having kids now. There she was 25, and didn't even have a boyfriend, which she really didn't mind she was too busy to even entertain the idea. She had volnteered at the womans shelter teaching self defense, she had a job at the local gym as a personal trainer, she had her hobbies that she loved to much to stop doing to have a boyfriend.

She was talking to her friend when she noticed some comotion going on across the way at the soccor field. She had tapped her friends shoulder and nudged in the direction of what looked like a fight going on between some of the teens that were playing, but they were wrong, and they soon found out how wrong they were. Anastasia had watche for a little while and then ha grown bored with the teens fighting and looked back at her friends, then a blood curdleing scream rang out drawing her attention back to the soccor field. The teens that were fighting, well one was now sitting on top the other and, what looked like, was pulling his intestines out and _eating_ them. Now when she thinks back at that day she knows without a doubt that was what was really going on. Her friend screamed as her husband was tackled by another man and that's when all hell had broken loose. She didn't have time to think or even truly comprehend what was going on around her. All she could do was grab her friends daughter by the arm and lead her away from the chaos that was going on around them. Her friend was already gone, and so was her husband.

She carted around that girl who at the time was just turning 10 for a long time, till one day they were exploring a shopping center for food when the little girl saw some cans and didn't look where she was running and was grabbed by a walker, there was no time for Anastasia to grab the girl and stop her or even call out to her. Then she was alone. She had all the time in the world to sit and think about what she could have done differently, what she could have done to save her friend. She had all the time to blame herself for what had happened. Although sometimes she knew that there was absolutely nothing that she could do to save them.

Here she was, God only knows how many months later, aiming her bow at a squirrel. All she knew was she was the only one left in her little town. She did miss the company of others at times, but liked the fact that she couldn't beat herself down anymore if they died. She let the arrow fly, hitting its mark right in the squirrel's eye. She snaked the bow over her right shoulder and stood from where she was squatting and walked over to her prize.

"This one is big," She said as she felt the weight of the squirrel as she picke it up by the arrow, ripping it from its head and cleaning the point on her pants before returning it to its home in her quiver. She wrapped a thin piece of twine around the squirrels neck and let it drop so it was hanging from her belt loop with the other squirrels she killed.

"3 should be enough," She frequently talked to herself now, but you would too if you were the only company for yourself, "Maybe too much…"

She shut her mouth before she could say whatelse she had pop into her brain. There was a noise, sounded like a loud engine. She couldn't even remember the last time that someone had come through her little town.

"I must be hearing things," She shook her head and started to scan the trees again for her next kill, but she heard it again, "Nope haven't gone entirely crazy yet." She turned on her heel and ran quietly to the sound of the engine.

There were still walkers around the town, not many but enough. Sure enough as she rounded a corner, headed to the pharmacy (where the sound was coming from), there were 2 of the walkers just standing there. She didn't even slow her pace, she pulled out he buck knife and pounced on one of them sending the knife through his skull and by the time they both hit the ground he was silent and the next walker was just about on top of her, she had anticipated that and had already pulled an arrow out of the quiver and shoved it up through the walkers jaw and out the top of her head. She pulled her buck knife out of the first walkers skull and whiped the clotted blood onto her pants and then she tried to pull the arrow out of the seconds head and it wouldn't come out. Just as she had braced her foot against the neck of the walker, a sound caught her attention. She wasnt anywhere near the pharmacy yet. Then she saw the shadow of a person holding what looked like the shape of a crossbow. She was quick to abandon the arrow and hurry quietly down the small alleyway and hide behind a dumpster. Then the man came into view, she watched him almost holding her breath so he wouldn't hear her. He was maybe a little taller than her, with brown hair that was the same shade as her own brown hair. He was rather dirty and had on a stained red plaid button up shirt with the sleeves cut off and just as dirty and torn pants with boots. He had stubble on his face. She watched as he kicked the dead walkers and then bend down to mess with the arrow in the females head. '_He isnt going to take my arrow!'_ she said to herself as she slowly and quietly stood and crept over to the man attempting to take her arrow. She drew her pistol from her right thigh holster and then slowly cocked it. He seemed to have heard that as she saw him tense up and his ears slightly rise, as if listening more carefully. She had stopped moving completley holding her breath again until he went back to trying at the arrow. She took another step and then she knew that he had just put up a front to get her to make a noise and confirm his suspicions. He was incredibly fast at turning that she almost didn't have time to react and pull up her gun to his head.

**_A/N: I know this was short and kind had a cliffhanger like ending to this, but review and the second chapter should be up soon with some actual interactions between OC and Daryl._**


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: Hi, thanks for stopping by to read this.  
>I also got my first follower! Whoo! thank you RachelNicole523! You made my day!<br>Let me know what you think and what I can improve! BTW, Stasia is pronounced Stay-zha. Let me know how I did with Daryls character. Btw, I should have mentioned this earlier, but Merle has already left and Shane is already starting to go a little bat-shit. If you have any pointers let me know! Do you think I should do a Daryls POV?_**

**_REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW _**

**_Enjoy the read and please please please let me know what you think!  
>Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. I only own my own ideas and character Anastasia.<em>**

"What do you think you are doing? Sneakin' up on me like that?!" The man spoke first, it had been so long since she heard another person talk she drew a blank, until he got louder, "Come on wit it!"

"That is my arrow," She nodded towards the walkers body, "As a fellow archer, you should know how precious arrows are," She looked him up and down, seeing if he were to attack her how much of a chance she had, and to be honest with herself, she didn't see that as going down well, "And how hard they are to come by."

He seemed to consider this and then opened his mouth, "Yeah, where is the rest of your group? How man-"

"There is only me." She answered before he could finish his statement, "It has been that way for a very long time."

He was about to say something, but then he took his turn to look her up and down and stopped over the fresh (well not fresh obviously) walker blood on her dark green jeans, then his eyes traveled to the squirrels she had tied to her belt loops. Then to all of the weaponry she had strapped to her, "Guess that's possible," He looked back up to her and caught her brown eyes with his blue ones, "Alright, I am gon' to lower this now," He took his left hand off the crossbow slowly and raised it up and she thought about not lowering hers but she did anyway.

"Why are you here?" She uncocked her gun and stuffed it back into its place back in its holster, "You're making a shit ton of noise, you're going to attract unwanted attention." She went back over to the walker and resumed her previous position before for he came and yanked the arrow out with ease. He must have loosened it while he played with it.

"My group is looking for medical supplies," He watched her clean off the arrow.

"Well, you're not going to find anything there," She looked up at him, she still didn't even know his name yet, "Some scavengers came through here a couple weeks ago and cleaned out the place. I doubt' Her words were cut off short. She was listening, her ears raised slightly catching the sounds. She knew what it was and wasn't happy about it. The man noticed this and started to listen too, she looked at him and she cracked a smile at the corner of her mouth, "Hear that?"

She looked around the alley way for a way out, there would be none. What they were hearing was a horde, and an abnormally fast moving one. She spotted a fire escape just out of jumping reach so she grabbed the dumpster and pulled it closer to the fire escape. She hopped on top of it and then jumped to the escape, but when she did the dumpster moved out from her a little bit making her miss where she had originally wanting to grab, she dangled there for a second and then hauled herself up with a grunt. She looked down at the man, he had his crossbow at the ready and then the horde was in sight, closing in at both sides of the alleyway. '_This is why I like to stay alone now…' _She sighed and then started messing with the ladder, it was stuck.

"Lady are you gonna help me?" He had a slight twinge of nervousness in his voice.

"The fucking ladder won't budge," She then started to kick it hard with her black boots and then it finally released, "Get up here!" She was looking over the edge as he put his cross bow over his shoulder and started to climb up the ladder. When he started onto the fire escape with her she grabbed him by his belt buckle and yanked him the rest of the way up and quickly got him out the way as she started to kick the ladder down completely. She didn't want the walkers to pull down the already rusted fire escape, and then there was a shift in the metal. The rusty bolts were starting to give, She quickly grabbed a windows ledge and pulled herself up to the top if the building, She leaned over and reached her hand out and the man grabbed it and she helped him up to the roof with her as the metal crashed down onto the walkers below.

" Thanks," He said as he nodded his head, he then had a look of worry on his face. She knew he was thinking about his group.

"Don't worry, they are headed just past the pharmacy," She stood and walked over to the edge of the roof and looked over at the horde below them. She shook her head, "Told you, unwanted attention."

She took the binoculars off her hip and looked through them looking to see if she could see how big this horde was. She didn't see an end to it. She shook her head, she hadn't seen this many together in a very long time. She then looked over in the direction of the pharmacy and saw the mans group was loading a RV up, next to the RV was a motorcycle leaning on its kickstand. "That must be what drove them all here," She said to herself more than to him, "Want to look?" She held out the binoculars to him, which he took and looked out to his group, "Looks like they are packing up to leave."

He handed her back her 'nocs' as she called them, "Yeah seems that way, our camp isn't that far out" He pointed in the direction of where their camp was. She nodded her head at that. There was an awkward silence as she looked over the edge of the building seeing the horde still passing by and then stopped and sat and cleaned her kills from the day. The silence lasted about 20 minutes.

"You don' talk much, Lady." The man spoke up.

She looked up at him, she had almost forgotten he was there, "I guess you would say I'm a woman of few words then. I would also much like it if you called me by my name."

He looked at her with a slightly confused look on his face, "Well I would if you had told me what that was…"

She considered this, scratching her head underneath the bun that sat at the crown of her head, "Yes,yeah well that makes sense," She held out her hand to him, forgetting her blood stained hands. She noticed the blood and then wiped them on the back of her hands and stretched it back out, "I'm Anastasia, my friends call m-" She stopped and made a slight face, "Well did call me Staisa."

The man stood up from where he was sitting and then took her hand and shook it, "Daryl."

She nodded her head, "Well, Daryl, this horde is taking forever to pass by," She motioned her hand to the horde below them, "and I'm hungry, my camp is just a little ways that way. You can stay here or you can come with me and have some dinner." She nodded in the direction of her camp and then walked to a building that had some make shift bridges that connected the two. The man who she know knew as Daryl looked back at where the pharmacy was and then started to follow her.

They arrived at a handmade rope bridge that lead to a tree that had a medium sized tree house in its leaves. It wasn't fancy, it was just two ropes horizontal to each other one on top and one about 3 feet below.

"You live in a tree?" He asked as he saw the tree house.

"Walkers cant climb trees," She answered as she grabbed the top rope and then stepped on the bottom rope which slacked down about a foot with her weight. She caught her balance and then started to shimmy her way across, once she made it to the branch she got off and then made a motion to the rope bridge, "waiting for an invitation?"

Daryl shook his head making her laugh a little. She watched patiently as he grabbed the rope and stepped off the steady roof onto the flimsy rope bottom and begin to slowly shimmy his way. He grabbed onto the branch that she was perched on and had a look of relief when he was safely on the branch. She entered the tree house once he looked like he had gotten his balance, he followed her in.

The little tree house had a small table in one of the corners with a small stack of books with a lantern next to them, her hair brush, and a handful of hair bands. Below the table was 6 gallon jugs of water. The corner directly across the table was a little pallet for sleeping. She had a stack of folded clothes next to it. On a large shelf that went all the way across the wall was a copious amount of ammunitions, about 8 machetes, some gun cleaning supplies, and 2 extra quivers with 10 arrows each. Upon seeing the quivers Daryl spoke up, "Yeah, arrows are so hard to come by," He said sarcastically.

She laughed a bit, "Yeah I suppose I could have just let one go," she motioned to the window where the horde could still be seen in the streets, "But then you would be stuck in that mess."

He nodded his head and sat in a chair that was next to the table as she grabbed a skillet and the little tiny fire pit like thing she had found and lit a fire in there and then she took her cleaned squirrels and cut little chunks of meat up and threw it in the skillet. She stood up and walked over to the table, and grabbed the wooden spoon and a little glass vial of mixed salt and pepper and went back to the skillet. She put it on the fire and added the salt and pepper mix to it, "I don't normally add this," She looked back up at him, "But then again I don't normally entertain either. Here come stir this. " She held out the spoon to Daryl. He eventually stood up and grabbed the spoon and started making sure the meat didn't stick to the skillet.

Stasia stood up and walked over to her weapons shelf and started to unload all her gear onto it. Daryl watched her slightly she had things on her that he didn't even see. Those things included, 2 more huge buck knives that were behind her shirt in the back. She took off her bow, guns, and nocs and stuck them on the shelf. Then she walked over and took the spoon back and sat next to him by the little fire pit.

"This is almost ready." She said as she looked closely at the squirrel meat that was now browned. She looked over to Daryl shoved the spoon back at him though she had just took it from him, walked over to the chair and grabbed the towel that was hanging over the back. She walked over to the skillet and wrapped the towel around the handle of the skillet, still feeling the heat radiating from it she brought it to inside the tree house and put it on the middle of the floor onto of the hanging piece of the towel. She sat next to the skillet and then smiled at Daryl, "You coming eat?" He stood and walked over to where she and the skillet was and sat across from her.

"So," Daryl grabbed a piece of squirrel out of the skillet and looked up back at her," how long have you been by yourself?"

She looked up at him she had a mouthful of squirrel, so she held up a finger at him signally to hold on a min. She quickly finished chewing her mouthful, She turned on her side and grabbed a jug of water and took a long sip out of it and then handed it to him, which he took and drank from, "Well, I wasn't always alone. When this first started I was with my friends daughter," her face molded into a sorrow filled one as she remembered the happy little girl and how it ended all too quickly for her, "she was with me for what felt like 5 months, could have been longer. After she died, its been just me." She scratched her arm and then shook her head clear of the memories and her face returned to the way it was formally, indifferent. She reached into the skillet and grabbed another chunk of squirrel.

"Sorry," Was all he said in answer to that. He grabbed another piece of meat and started to chew on it.

Stasia stood up and walked over to the little window and looked out, the horde was still passing trough, "It's a big one," She mumbled to herself as sh directed her gaze over to the west and saw that the sun was starting to set, "Gonna get dark soon, their always more active at night."

"Wha'?" Daryl spoke up, He stood up and walked over to where she was standing and looked out the window to see what she was looking at. She tensed a little bit at his close proximity and backed away a little bit. She wasn't used to being that close to anyone, let alone a man. Who in fact was extremely good looking, now that she thought about it.

"Oh, um," She started, she backed away from him a few steps and scratched the top of her head underneath her bun again, "I was just saying its going to be dark soon. They are always active most at night around here for some reason." She sat in her chair and rubbed her stomach, now full with meat.

"So, -"Daryl started to say as he turned to look at her. She was pulling out the hair band that was holding her hair up in a bun at the crown of her head and was now running her fingers through her mid back length chestnut hair and scratching her head in certain places. She loved how it felt after a long day pulling her hair down and then just moving it around, glad to have it free again. It wasn't a good idea to have it down when she was out hunting or savaging, a walker could grab it and that would be the end. She had seen it happen to many times, she had actually lost count.

She made eye contact with Daryl with a continue face, "Soooo," She said dragging out the o, grabbing her brush then brushing out the knots, "What?"

"So," Daryl looked back out the window after a few more seconds of staring, "What would you suggest?" He looked back at her.

She simply shrugged her shoulders and put the brush back down, "I suggest you stay here till morning."

_**A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope I did a good job of portraying Daryl. If there is something I can fix PM me. Review guys!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Hi people! how are you doing! I am so excited I got another follower! Whoo! Thank you**_** Little Coroner****_! You have no idea how excited I get to see that someone has started to follow me. _**

**_So I'm a little surprised at how quickly this chapter got typed up, considering that my toddler has been giving me hell these past few weeks with her getting her molars and learning how to climb out her bed!_**

**_Just a little info, This chapter is not too exciting, there really isn't any action. So sorry if you find it slow._**

**_Let me know what you guys think about it! review review review._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or it's characters. Just my own ideas and OC, Anastasia.  
>Enjoy! :)<em>**

Daryl had a slightly apprehensive look on his face, he wasn't sure how he felt about staying with someone who he knew nothing about. Although he didn't want to venture out into the horde, especially at night, either.

She leaned back in her chair and watched him think about what he was going to do, Stasia then spoke up, "I'm not going to kill you in your sleep if that was what you were wondering."

He looked back at her and smirked a little bit, "What makes you think that I wont kill you?"  
>She let out a little chuckle at his words, "You wouldn't get the chance." She reached under the table and grabbed the extra blanket that she had under there, for when it was winter, and threw it over to him. She then walked over to her pallet she had set up and lifted her blankets to reveal that there were 4 little handmade stuffed mattresses that were about an inch thick. She pulled two out and moved them to where Daryl could sleep, about 2 feet away. She replaced her own blankets and then she sat down onto her own bedding and watched him as he laid out the blanket over the bed she had produced for him.<br>She crossed her legs and sat Indian style, "I'm thinking we will leave at first light to get you back to your group. May-"  
>"We?" He interrupted.<br>"Yes, we.." She motioned to her and him with her hand, "Unless you want to run into the morning walkers," She pulled her hair over her right shoulder, "I do know this town like the back of my hand, and where the walkers like to hang out at different times in the day."  
>He raised an eyebrow at this, "I'm sure I can handle a few walkers."<br>"That's fine and dandy and all that that," She pinched the bridge of her nose, "But the walkers around here hang out in large groups," She pointed at his crossbow, which was leaning against the wall not even 10 inches from where he sat on his bedding, "And I highly doubt, 10 arrows will be enough to get you out of town," She shrugged her shoulders as she leaned back against the wall, "But okay go out on your own, doesn't matter to me." She then raised her arms over her head letting out a nice relaxing stretch and let out a long yawn.  
>Daryl watched her do this and considered her words carefully. It was true she knew way more about the town, and didn't doubt that she knew her way around, "Alright then, fine."<br>She had stopped stretching at his words and let her arms fall down to her sides and looked over at him, she nodded. She looked out the window at the now dark blue sky with dark orange blended in, The sun was about to be completely down. She stood and went grab her lantern off her table and walked over to where the now empty skillet was, "I'll clean this when I get back," She said to herself as she put the lantern where the skillet was and put the skillet where the lantern was on the table. Her attention went to the window and she walked and looked out, the horde was finally at its end. That was the biggest horde she had seen ever now that she thought about it.  
>"Where the heck did that horde come from?" She mumbled to herself.<br>"Look, Anastasia, you got to stop talking to yourself like that," Daryl said drawing her attention over to him, "You keep making me think you're talking to me."  
>She turned and sat on the ledge of the window, "Well, I'm sorry." She laughed slightly at the thought that he probably thought she was slightly crazy with all the talking to herself, but if you were alone for months and months, you'd start talking to yourself too. She noticed the darkness now filling the room and looked over her shoulder and the now fully set sun. The last bit of that day light now was leaving. She looked back over at where Daryl sat, the darkness now hugging his face. She stared for a couple of seconds as he stared back at her. Her thoughts filling her head about him and the turn of events that lead him there. She chewed on the inside of her bottom lip, "What were you doing when we crossed paths?" She asked him wondering why he ventured that far from his group.<br>"Nothing really, I was just looking around for walkers," He kept his blue eyes trained on her wondering why the question had just now came up.  
>"Why scout that far away?" She noticed the sudden lack of light in the little tree house and now how hard it was to see him. He was just a shadow against the wall. She took two steps out and then reached for the lantern, groping around a little bit till her hand landed on top of it and she cut the artificial light on, shocked by the sudden amount of light, "You were more than ¾ of a mile away from the pharmacy."<br>He looked at her after his eyes had finally adjusted in the dark. His eyes studying her, "We have two kids with us."

She thought about this for a while. If they had children in their group they probably weren't bad people. The bad people usually didn't keep children in their group, due to them being more of a burden to carry around with them.  
>"Would one of them happen to be a girl?" She asked as she stood up and walked over to the shelf where her weapons were.<br>He raised an eyebrow with a very confused look on his face and with a slight bit of accusation in his voice he simply said, "Yeah."  
>She reached above her and grabbed a doll that had been for Cassie, Her friend's daughter that she had kept alive as long as she could. She stared down at the doll for a good while remembering the little girl. She felt a twinge of sorrow filling her stomach and her eyes starting to burn with the threat of tears. She quickly shook that off and showed it to Daryl, "You think she would like this? It was for my friend's daughter."<br>He had noticed her pain and his look had softened back to the way it was before, "Yeah, you can give it to her."  
>She raised an eyebrow at him, "I thought you didn't even like the idea of me getting you to the town's outskirts, now you're wanting me to go with you back to your camp?"<br>He didn't know what to say to this, " Yeah.."  
>"Well okay," She walked over to where she had a big book bag leaning against a wall and put the doll inside, "Might be nice to see other people and talk."<br>She looked outside and saw the stars twinkling in the now completely black sky. She could only say one thing good about the whole 'Zombie Outbreak', and that was that, now at night you could actually see the stars. No city lights to drown out the night sky with their artificial lights. Another thing would be it was now quiet. No people chattering away on their cell phones, no cars honking their horns in impatience while being stuck in traffic.  
>She looked back at Daryl who was watching her intently. She had that strange feeling again, like when he had gotten close to her at the window. She summed it up to it just being the lack of human interaction once again. She went over to the lantern and picked it up and placed it back on the table and cut the light off, "We should go to bed." She made her way over to her bedding and sat on it. She chewed on the inside of her bottom lip again and then heard him lay down; she laid down as well and then wrapped herself in the light blanket. She closed her eyes and listened to him, making sure that she was right in assuming that they weren't bad people. She didn't hear him move from his bed. She let out a slight yawn and turned over to face the wall and then drifted off to sleep.<p>

She woke up the next morning, probably a hour or two before sunrise, after a long dreamless night. Just like every other day. She sat up slowly as she started to do her normal morning routine, but then quickly remembered that she wasn't alone. She looked over to where Daryl's bed was set up and rubbed her eyes a little bit trying to get them adjusted to the lack of light. She could just make out the shape of him. She quietly stood and slowly made her way over to the table where the lantern was and turned the light on its lowest setting, barely letting out any light just enough for her to see where she had her things. She started to make her way over to her clothes but quickly stopped, tensing up, and looked over at Daryl as she heard him make a slight grunting noise. She relaxed when she decided he was still asleep. She finished making her way over to her little pile of clothes and grabbed a clean shirt and pants along with panties. She quickly changed out her bottom attire, with the new clean ones. She tossed the old panties and jeans over to her bed and just as quickly as the old ones came off she had the new ones one along with her clean dark blue and slightly torn ones. She pulled off her blood stained shirt to pull on a not as badly stained white tank top over her head. She heard Daryl starting to sit up as she pulled the shirt over her belly button. She looked over at him, he was staring intently at her, once again.  
>She gave a sarcastic smile, "Well morning sunshine," she kicked her shirt over to the rest of her dirty clothes, "Didn't anyone tell you not to stare?" She went back to the lantern and then turned the light to full brightness, temporarily blinding herself and Daryl. She went over to her back pack took it with her to her pile of clothes shoved a clean shirt in there. She then made her way to the shelf and grabbed a few boxes of ammunition, she grabbed a machete and stuck under to the little straps she sewed on herself for that purpose. She then grabbed a few bottles of antibiotics and a few rolls of bandages. She then made her way to the table and shoved a baggy of squirrel jerky she had made a while back. Daryl just watched her as she scurried about getting stuff packed up.<br>"I've decided, I'd give your group some of my medical supplies," She looked over at him, now explaining the pills and bandages, "You know, for the kids." She shrugged her shoulders and then stuck the doll on top and zipped the back pack closed.  
>"Thanks," He nodded at her and then watched her begin to strap up the arsenal of weapons to herself. She had her two thigh holsters on, her buck knives in their place and then she began to tie up her boots.<br>She then stood up as the sun finally started to peak over the horizon, "Ready to go?" She asked as she put the book sack to her back.  
>"Does that mean I have to go over that rickety rope bridge again?" Daryl asked as he stood and took a hold of his cross bow.<br>"No that means we get to go down a rickety rope ladder." She said as she kicked down a rope ladder he hadn't noticed before by the branch they came in on.  
>"Lovely." He said sarcastically as he watched her make her way down.<p>

_**A/N: Thanks for reading. Next chapter will have more action. Let me know if there is anything you want to see. Also if there is anything i am doing wrong with Daryls character.  
>Thanks and please review!<strong>_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Hey everyone! here is chapter 4! Let me know what you think! Please I'm dying here! Review!  
>Maybe some kind of constructive criticism, notes you might have, thoughts...anything...<strong>_

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's character. I only own my own ideas and my own OC, Anastasia.

Enjoy you guys!

Her feet hit the ground and she quickly looked around. There were a few walkers in the distance, but nothing to worry about. They were too far off, and hadn't noticed her. She heard Daryl making his way down the ladder and when he hit the ground she grabbed the bottom of the rope ladder that had rocks tied to the bottom and threw it back up to the tree house. She looked at Daryl who was looking at the walkers, nudged him and then they started walking toward the town.

When they reached the first building she looked around the corner down an alley to see that walkers were huddled around a dead dog (or something), she didn't spend too much time thinking about what it was. She motioned for him to follow as she started to sneak across the alley.  
>They made their way about 20 blocks down the street, taking the alleys and back ways to avoid bigger packs of walkers that just aimlessly walked around, to a corner store. Across from the corner store was the pharmacy where his bike sat still.<p>

"That's yours right?" She asked pointing to the motorcycle.  
>Daryl looked over to where she was pointing and nodded his head. He made his way over to the bike and she was on his heels. When they reached the bike she started to have second thoughts about going with him to his group, but she remembered the doll and the few medical supplies that she was going to give to the group. Daryl didn't have his own back pack, that would make it hard for him to carry the stuff.<p>

"Getting this started is going to draw them all here." She said looking around at their surroundings. A few walkers had hobbled their way out of the alleys and onto the main street. Anastasia grabbed her bow off from her chest and then pulled a arrow back and started to take aim. Daryl looking at where she was aiming and then took his crossbow and aimed at the other one.  
>Just as Stasia was about to let her arrow fly about 30 or 40 more walkers came out of that same alleyway. She took her arrow down and put it back in its quiver. There was no way that they could kill all of those walkers without drawing attention of more. Daryl had already gotten on his bike when she looked over at him. He started the engine drawing the attention of the walkers that were now filling the streets. He grabbed her arm and yanked her onto the back of his bike. Not even waiting for her to hold on, he took off. She was jerked backwards close to falling off she grabbed him and regained balance as she put the bow back over her shoulder. She then held on with both hands for dear life. She had never been on a motorcycle before, even before the outbreak. Sure she had ridden with her grandfather when she was a child, but she had barely and memory of that now.<p>

They had traveled about 10 miles down the highway when she finally loosened her grip on his waist and started looking around at the colors of the trees blending in with the occasional gas station they passed. She was glad that she had pulled her hair back into her bun, her hair would have been a ratty mess after all this. She looked over her shoulder, her little town growing smaller and smaller with each passing mile.  
>"It's going to take forever to get back to camp," She said to herself as she sighed realizing how far out his camp must have been.<br>She looked back forward and looked over his shoulder at the road. Loosening her grip some more, she was beginning to feel more comfortable on the bike.  
>About another 5 or 6 miles, she had almost stopped holding on all together, just having her fingers looped through his belt loops.<br>She had been enjoying the ride actually, it was exciting. She looked over his shoulder again to see a camp growing closer in the distance. There was someone on top of the RV waving at Daryl.

They pulled up; Daryl shut off the engine and let off Stasia off first. She was greeted with strange looks from everyone.  
>She looked around at all the new faces in front of her. There was a woman with brown wavy hair with a little boy standing next to her. Next to her was a man with brown hair and a salt and pepper short beard growing on his face. He was walking over to where she and Daryl stood. Along with the man with the salt and pepper bread another man was making his way over, he had brown hair as well, there was something about the way he looked that she didn't like or trust. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to come, but then she would probably be dead.<p>

"Daryl, who the fuck is this?!" The man she had an instant dislike for said as they reached them.  
>"Shane, clam the hell down!" The man with the bread said, he held a hand out to Stasia, "I'm Rick."<br>She looked from the man she didn't like, Shane, to the man who just introduced himself to her as Rick, "I'm Anastasia." She answered him as she took his hand and shook it, she even offered a friendly smile that Shane just scoffed at.  
>"We can't just keep taking new people into our group, Daryl, why the hell did you bring her back here?" Shane asked staring daggers at Daryl.<br>"She kept a horde from eating me," He looked at Shane with just the same amount of daggers as Shane was shooting at him, "She helped me out of the town, and I repaid the favor by taking her with me to keep her from getting out numbered." And with that Daryl walked off to his tent leaving Stasia alone to talk to the asshole, Shane, and the nice guy, Rick.  
>"Well, thank you for getting Daryl out of harm's way." Shane said sarcastically he was opening his mouth to say something else, probably just as mean, when Rick raised his hand signaling Shane to be quite.<br>"Shane, maybe you should go plan a route to the next gas station with T-dog over there." Rick jerked his thumb over to a black man standing with a skinny Asian guy that was looking over a map on the hood of a jeep. Shane looked like he was about to say something else, but shut his mouth and sulked off.  
>"Shane doesn't mean to be like that." Rick stated, drawing Anastasia's attention back to him, "He is just stressed, he is actually a good guy once you get to know him." Anastasia studied his face, it seemed to her that he didn't even believe the words he said himself.<br>"I guess first impressions don't mean anything to him then." Anastasia said making Rick laugh a little bit. Just as he finished laughing, she remembered that she was supposed to give them the medical supplies.  
>"Oh, here," She pulled the book sack off her back after she took off her bow and set it leaning on Daryl's bike and then opened the bag and pulled out the bandages handing them to Rick, "Daryl said y'all were in the town looking for medical supplies. Well I know that there was nothing in that pharmacy because I pretty much cleaned it out before the scavengers came through and cleaned out the rest." She reached in to grab the antibiotics and pain pills out looking up at Rick; he motioning for the lady with brown hair over.<br>"Anastasia, this is my wife Lori and our son Carl." He introduced them as they made their way over to them. Lori looked at the bandages in Ricks arms and had a look of relief on her face as she took them off of Ricks hands.  
>"It's nice to meet you Lori," Stasia put her bag down and stretched out her hand to the woman, "I'm Anastasia, but you can call me Stasia," She then looked down at Carl, "It's nice to meet you too." She smiled warmly at the boy. She then remembered the antibiotics and the pain killers.<br>"Thank you for the supplies, we were almost out of bandages." Lori smiled at Stasia as she watched her digging in her bag again.  
>"Here I have these too." She showed Lori 3 big bottles of antibiotics and 2 big bottles of pain killers, "Where do you want these?"<br>"You can follow me, I'll introduce you to the rest." Lori turned and started walking to the RV, She nodded her head to the man standing at the top of the RV, "That is Dale. He is a very kind man,"  
>Stasia looked up at the man as he waved down to her. She waved back but didn't have time to tell him her name because Lori was still walking. Stasia quickened her pace to catch back up to her and then watched as Lori nodded towards the Jeep, "You already know, Shane. But the kid is Glenn and the big guy there is T-Dog," They were too busy to notice them walking by. They were planning a trip to find gas she thought, maybe why else look for a gas station. They were then at the RV. Lori opened the door and then climbed in, Stasia followed her inside and there was a woman, maybe in her mid 40's with short grey hair sitting at a table with a little girl with a blonde bob. The other woman in the RV, she had longer blonde hair longer than Loris but shorter than Stasias own hair. They all looked up at Lori and Stasia entered the RV.<br>"Oh Lori, we-" the woman with short hair started then stopped as she noticed Stasia standing behind her.  
>"Carol, Andrea, Sofia, This is Anastasia." Lori said as she nodded back to Stasia. Lori walked over to the table and laid the bandages down on the top of the table.<br>"Y'all can call me Stasia," Stasia said as she walked over and started to unload the pill bottles onto the table.  
>"Oh, great, another mouth to feed." Andrea stood up and walked out the RV, but while passing Stasia she gave her the worst stare Stasia had received that day. Even worse than the glare that Shane gave her.<br>"I'm sorry about that," Carol spoke up looking at Stasia, "She just lost her sister not that long ago."  
>"It's okay I understand." Stasia said, She looked at the little girl and smiled at her, she took her book sack off her back again and reached in once again and pulled out the doll, "Daryl said that you would like this." Stasia offered the doll to Sofia and smiled. Sofia looked to her mother, after Carol nodded Sofia took the doll and smiled at Stasia,<br>"Thank you!" Sofia said happily. The girl reminded her of Cassie. Bob and all.  
>"Why don't you go play with Carl?" Carol said to her daughter who was more than happy to oblige, "Here sit down, Stasia." Carol motioned to the spot where Andrea was sitting. Stasia walked over and sat down timidly.<br>"So, Stasia," Lori sat down next to Carol after she had put away all of the bandages and pills, "What happened that you had to save Daryl?"  
>"A big ass horde crept up on us," Stasia scratched the top of her head under her bun, she was nervous; these were a lot of people. If they were bad she was done, but they didn't seem that way, "The noise y'all were making with the engines, well mostly his engine, drew them there."<br>Carol gasped at the word horde, and Lori had a worried look on her face.  
>"How big of a horde?" Carol asked with a nervous twinge in her voice.<br>"I would say at least a mile. Took them a good 2 or 3 hours to finally trickle down, by that time it was night." Stasia said she looked over at Carol, "I'm pretty sure they just kept on the way they were heading. I wouldn't worry about it."  
>Carol sighed a bit in relief.<br>Stasia's stomach growled a bit. She reached down into her back pack and grabbed her bag of squirrel jerky and offered some to Lori and Carol, they both happily accepted it.  
>"So, Stasia, don't you have a group? Aren't they worried about you?" Lori asked after she swallowed a bite of the jerky.<br>"Oh," Stasia saw a double meaning in this, she wasn't very trusting of new people no matter how nice they seemed. She could have been a little bit paranoid, but it's saved her in the past, "Do you want me to leave?" She stood and was slightly worried she had offended Lori somehow.  
>"No, no, no!" Lori quickly said as she reached her hand out and guided Stasia back to sitting down, "I was just asking."<br>"Oh," Stasia let out a sigh of relief, to be honest she wasn't looking forward to the long walk back, "Oh well, no I don't have a group. It's just me. The only other person I had with me was my friend's daughter."  
>"What happened to her, if you don't mind me asking?" Carol chimed in hearing about the girl and seeing that Stasia had a sad look on her face.<br>"A walker got her," Stasia looked out the window to the left of her hands folded on top of the table, Carol reached her hand across and laid her hand over Stasias own.  
>"I'm so sorry." Lori said.<br>"Anastasia," Daryl's voice was heard before he was seen, Stasia looked up and saw him walking up the steps, "Do you want to come hunting with me?"  
>"Sure," She stood up and waved by to the ladies, "It was good talking with you ladies."<p>

_**A/N: Thanks for reading everyone! **_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you for stopping to read my story. Thanks to my new followers lilacsandroses93 and mmiller1983! I get so excited when I see i have a new follower. Oh and thanks for favoriteing!  
>Well here is my new chapter. I know it is moving slow right now, but it will pick up eventually. :) Enjoy reading, review! PM me if there is anything you want to see happen in here or if I'm not doing justice to a certain character, I am currently re-watching all the seasons of walking dead and replaying the walking dead games, so I might correct myself eventually. I still appreciate the constructive criticism, if I ever get any.<strong>_

_**Enjoy the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's character. I only own my own ideas and character Anastasia.  
><strong>_

Stasia took drew back her bow string and aimed at a squirrel. She took a deep breath in and as she let go of the bow string. The arrow hitting the squirrel right in the eye.  
>She walked over picked up the squirrel by the arrow yanking the arrow out then swiping it clean on her pants. She tied the squirrel around the neck and put it with the other 6 squirrels that were hanging from her belt loops.<br>She couldn't imagine hunting to feed all these people by herself. She didn't know how Daryl did it. She let out a slight sigh and then started stalking for more squirrels.

A sound caught her attention. Her shoulders tensed; she drew an arrow into place as she looked to her left where the sound came from. She quietly toward the sound. She soon came upon a walker hunched over a dead deer, she stepped a little bit closer. When her foot fell to the ground she snapped a stick drawing the attention of the walker to her. She quickly let her arrow go and it found its mark right in the walkers left eye. It fell to the ground and after a second to think about what had just happened she grabbed the arrow and cleaned it off, putting it into its home in her quiver.  
>She looked down at the dead deer, shaking her head as she squatted down next to it. She poked at the bite mark at the deer's neck and let out a sigh she had been holding in, "What a waste of meat," She said softly to herself, "I wish I would have come across this before that fuckin' geek." She shook her head once more. This deer would have fed the group for a long time; she could have made a lot of jerky out of it. Her mind went to the children at the camp, and then they went back to Cassie. How that little girl had loved Stasia's jerky when she made it; how she liked to help her.<br>She had gotten so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the sounds of the leaves crunching behind her. She wasn't aware of someone behind her until she felt the cold blade of a knife to her throat. Her heart beat quickened, her adrenaline coursing through her veins. She quickly grabbed the hand that held the knife, twisted it making whoever it was drop the knife. She spun around her elbow high enough to connect to, now she saw was a man, his head making him fall to the side. Before she could tell who he was or even give him a chance to say something she was on top of him with her buck knife pressed to his neck. She then noticed his face looked familiar. She calmed down a little bit and looked at his face  
>"What the fuck is your problem, Daryl?!" She said loudly, not removing the knife from his neck but relaxing the pressure on his neck, "I would have killed you, and I'm actually thinking I still might."<br>"Calm down Woman," He raised his hand up in surrender, "You were just sitting there staring into space. I was hoping I'd teach you not to get lost in thoughts like that alone, "He eyed the knife at his throat, "Looks like I really didn't need to do that."  
>Stasia took the knife from his neck and got up, "To think that me telling you that you wouldn't get a chance to kill me last night didn't you understand?"<br>"I guess I should have taken you more seriously.." Daryl said as he sat up looking at the dead walker and deer, "They got your deer? Happened to me not to long ago."  
>"No, I found the walker eating it. It's a shame." Stasia looked at the deer again, "I've got 7 squirrels though."<br>Daryl nodded his head in agreement about the deer, "I've got 10. It will be enough to feed everyone tonight." He stood up and held his hand out to help her up. She took it.  
>They started to walk back towards the camp. Stasia had her bow in its place on her back. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a Altoids tin, she flipped it open and grabbed a cigarette out and put it in her mouth. She let it hang there as she put her tin back and started fishing around her pockets for her lighter. Before she found hers a flame was a centimeter away from her unlit cigarette. Daryl had produced a lighter and was lighting her cigarette for her then lit his own.<br>"You know they say these things will kill you." Daryl said. Stasia looked over at him, from the short time that she had known him, she never pictured him to be the type to make small talk.  
>"Well," She said taking a long drag, exhaling the smoke as she spoke, "I'd rather die from one of these little things then being ripped apart by those undead fucks."<br>"You're right there." He replied as he flicked the ashes off his cherry.  
>Stasia let out a little laugh as they continued on. The interaction with other people was making her happy. She had forgotten what it was like. Sure she had helped a few other people out, but they never hung around long. They always accepted her help, offered for her to join them, but she never would. She figured that it was safer to stay alone. She didn't have to worry about forming bonds with anyone, and then feeling the pain of losing them. If and when they did go.<br>Being alone was safe too not to mention. For the same reasons. If this group asked her to join as well, she would probably turn them down too. Not that she didn't like the people. Rick, Lori, and Carol (really the only ones she had a chance to talk to) were very nice people. Daryl, she still wasn't too sure about. It seemed to her that they were alike on some points. She doubted that she would really have a chance to get to know him other than now.

"So," Daryl interrupted her thoughts, "Where did you learn how to hunt like that?"  
>Stasia looked over at him and smiled a little bit at one of the happy memories that now flooded her brain, "My father taught me," she looked back at the path they were taking, "He always said, 'A woman needs to know how to hunt. Fend for herself'" She looked over Daryl a smile playing on her lips, "ya know I used to think it was pointless, but I'm extremely grateful that he did."<br>"Your dad was a smart man." Daryl said as he looked from her back to the path.  
>"The funny thing is, I always thought the man was a Paranoid, he actually had a bug out bag and a shelter that he built underground for when 'The Government Fell" she made quote signs in the air and laughed a bit.<br>"Do you know what happened to him?" Daryl asked as he looked over at her, examining her face. All the emotions on her face.  
>"No," Her smile faded to one of worry or sorrow Daryl couldn't tell, "Mom and him were on vacation in Colorado when the outbreak happened."<br>"Well with the way your describing your dad, doesn't seem like he would be the one to go down easy." Daryl said as he patted her shoulder. He was almost as awkward as she was in social situations.  
>"Yeah, that man is one hard son of a bitch to kill. He was shot about 8 times and stabbed 4 or 5 times in his life and lived through it all." She laughed a little bit. Her father had been in the Marine Corps, and when he was done with that he had worked as a police officer. She always thought he had bad luck, getting shot and stabbed all those times, but maybe he wasn't.<p>

They had reached the edge of the woods. Stasia stopped and watched his group as Daryl walked over to his tent and sat grabbing his squirrels. He began cleaning them over a bucket. She looked over at the Jeep where Glenn, Shane, and T-dog were looking over a map before they left to go hunting; they weren't there anymore. Shane was standing next to Rick and was having a heated discussion. She furrowed her eyebrows at this, she shook her head. People shouldn't be arguing like that, especially when they have children in the group. To think that they would care a little bit more than to do that. It seemed that Shane was more the only fussing. It looked as though Rick was trying to get him to calm down. Why would they keep such a hostile person in their group, if it had been Stasia she would have left him long ago.  
>She then looked over to the top of the RV where Dale was. He was replaced with T-dog. The big man stood up top keeping an eye out through their own pair of nocs. She looked down and soon found that Dale was talking to Andrea. She didn't look too happy either, but then again Stasia wouldn't be too happy if her sister had died a few days ago.<br>Carl and Sofia were playing under the watchful eye of Carol. Stasia assumed that Lori was in the RV.

Stasia sat next to Daryl and started untying her squirrels from her belt, then working on the ties around their necks.  
>"So you can hunt too?" Stasia looked up to see that Rick was standing there with Shane behind him.<br>"Yeah, Uh, my father taught me a long time ago." She didn't like the way that Shane looked at her. She just wished he would walk away and go bother someone else.  
>"That's a good thing." Rick then turned his attention to Daryl, "Were going look for more gas so we can leave in the morning and start heading to Fort Benning." Stasia looked at Daryl who was giving Shane a nasty stare. When she looked back at Shane he had backed away a few steps, "We want you to come with us."<br>"Whatever," Stasia looked back at Daryl as he had answered Rick he offered up the Squirrel he was cleaning and his knife.  
>"That's okay I have my own. " Stasia said as she reached to her back and pulled out one of her hidden buck knives that she normally used as her cleaning knife. Daryl took his knife and cleaned it off then stuck it into place. He stood and went grab his crossbow and a shotgun and followed Rick. Stasia had started to clean the squirrel. But she felt a pair of eyes still trained on her. She turned her head and there was Shane still standing there.<p>

"What?" She asked with an annoyed tone in her voice.  
>"Oh nothing, just watching you clean that meat." Shane answered with a completely false kindness in his voice. He probably thought she couldn't tell the difference, but she could and she didn't like it.<br>"Shouldn't you go get ready to leave with Daryl and Rick?" Stasia asked nodding her head in the direction of Rick and Daryl. They were consolidating the gas into one tank and then putting the tanks into the back of the jeep. The man occasionally looking up at her and Shane, both with a look on their face. Stasia couldn't really tell what it was, but it was definitely a look of distaste.  
>"Well I'm not going with them." Shane drew her attention back at him, "We can't have all our man power going get gas."<br>Stasia felt a twinge of annoyance and nervousness fill her stomach, "Well, can you go find somebody else to loom over?"  
>Shane chuckled a little bit then turned on his heel and walked off. She looked back over at Daryl and Rick, Glenn had now joined them. They were getting into the Jeep. Daryl was tightening the two tanks on the back of the jeep. He looked over at her; she waved at him, which he returned to her as he got in the Jeep. She wasn't entirely sure why she waved at him. She watched as they pulled off. She looked around the camp. Dale and Andrea were done talking, as Andrea was storming into the RV leaving Dale to call after her. T-dog was still looking out for walkers on top of the RV. Lori and Carol had the kids sitting over a table as they tutored them in whatever it was. And then Shane, Shane just sat there staring at her. She wasn't sure what he was trying to do whether that be intimidate her or, or- well to be honest she had no idea what he was trying to do, but she didn't like the idea of being alone with the man and hoped it never happened.<br>She went back to cleaning the squirrels and to dwell in her thoughts. Why didn't she volunteer to go after Rick asked Daryl to go. Daryl could have been the one alone with these people, not her.

She could still feel Shanes eyes burning into her. She didn't like it, she didn't like it at all..

_**A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think :)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: Hey everyone! I got my first reviews! I was so excited to see that! To my mystery person who reviewed, Thank you thank you, I hope I continue making you happy :) And to my other reviewer oXxgeorgiaxXo (also thanks for the follow), I haven't fully desided if I'm going to pull from the tv show and game yet. I do get inspiration from it. Up until my character shows up the Grimmes group has followed the story of the show, the quarry, the Atlanta incident, The CDC. I still don't know If I want to go along with the show. Also sillygabby, Thanks i do like a badass OC as well. I think you kind of have to be a badass in the days of a zombie outbreak! I hope I dont bore you! :) I would love to know if anyone wants it to follow the show or not.  
>I appreciate all types of reviews as long as they are not hurtful or malicious in any way. Your opinions and words of praise or criticism makes me better, so please keep it coming!<strong>_

_**Oh, and I was rereading i think it was chapter 3, well when Stasia first met Rick and Lori and i realized that I kept spelling beard, as bread! lmao! oh dyslexia you got me again!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters. I only own my own ideas and character Anastasia.**_

_**Enjoy the chapter!**_

"So I guess I don't have to worry about you eating all our food." Andrea walked up to Stasia after coming out of the RV. Stasia looked up from the last squirrel she was cleaning. She had the others in a big pot waiting to be have the meat cut from the bones.  
>"Yeah, I'm pretty proficient at feeding myself." Stasia replied sarcastically, getting back to her job of cleaning meats, "In fact I'm pretty good at feeding other people as well."<br>"I should say I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier." Andrea sat across from Stasia.  
>Stasia didn't look up from her work as she said, "It's okay I understand," then she did look up at Andrea, "Times are hard and extremely stressful now."<br>Andrea nodded in agreement, "Do you want help cutting the meat?"  
>Stasia smiled a little bit, tossing the now cleaned squirrel into the pot with the others. She took a towel that was next to the bucket and cleaned off her knife. She put the knife back in its spot in the back of her pants and grabbed a filleting knife she saw next to the bucket and tested if it was sharp enough as she ran her finger across. Feeling it rough, she knew it would work, "Sure, I was thinking we cut these into little squares, or as good as we can get it and then make a stew like thing."<br>Andrea nodded and grabbed a freshly skinned and gutted squirrel and produced her own filleting knife. She cringed a little bit at the feel of the skinless squirrel in her hands but started to cut the flesh from the bones, like Stasia was doing. Stasia let out a slight laugh at Andrea's reaction to the meat.

"I prefer fishing." Andrea said suddenly after getting the first little squirrel steak from the bones.  
>"Is that right?" Stasia answered, she had already gotten her squirrel deboned. She was chunking the bones and unwanted meat into the bucket, "I can't even remember the last time I had fish."<br>Andrea smiled at Stasia, "you should have shown up a week ago, my sister and I caught at least a dozen fish." Andrea's smiled faded at the mention of her sister. Her face growing more sullen.  
>Stasia noticed this, stopped deboning the squirrel she had in her hands and caught Andrea's eye, "I'm really sorry for your loss. It's a terrible thing when you lose someone you love."<br>"Thanks." Was all Andrea said in reply. Stasia took that as that was all she wanted to say about that. Stasia didn't pry. She just went back to what she was doing.

Stasia had lost her fair share of people she loved too, everyone has. In this day in age, it happened all the time. Although Stasia only knew for sure about a few people she had lost, most she couldn't possibly know for sure. Like her father, as she was telling Daryl earlier. She knew for sure that her friends were dead, and she heard from one of her cousins who she had run into during the beginning of the outbreak that she had lost both aunt and uncle. There was so much death. Too many walkers.

"You know," Andrea started after a while of silence, "I don't think Shane likes you too much."  
>Stasia looked up at Andrea with a disgusted look on her face about to ask why she thought to say that, then stopped as she saw Andrea looking over in Shanes direction. The man was still staring at her.<br>"To be honest, I don't really care what he thinks about me," Stasia looked away from Shane's unyielding stare to continue on with her deboning, "It's not like I'm staying here. I'm probably going to leave after I get this cooked."  
>Andrea looked at her with a inquisitive look on her face, then looked past Stasia's shoulder at someone. Stasia looked behind her to see Lori walking up to them with an extra pan in her hands.<br>"You can't leave after you cook," Lori sat next to Stasia, "It will be dark before you even get half way there. After you helped Daryl the least we can do is let you stay with us tonight." Lori set the pan down next to the pot.  
>"I don't think that Shane would appreciate it very much if I stayed." Stasia nudged her head in the direction that Shane was standing. Lori looked over and then looked back with a scowl on her face.<br>"If you think I care what Shane thinks, you're wrong." Lori said as she pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear, "Besides it's not up to Shane anymore, it's up to Rick. I know that Rick won't want you getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere at night."  
>"I don't know-" Stasia had said but was quickly interrupted by Lori,<br>"It doesn't matter, I wont let you leave and I know Carl and Sofia wont let you go either, "Lori laughed a little bit, "That's all they wanted to talk about during tutoring. 'is she staying with us now', and 'how old is she', and 'she is like the girl version of Daryl except more heavily armed'" Lori used open and close air quotes to symbolize that the children were the ones say this. Stasia chuckled a little bit. Kids were cute, so curious.  
>"Well, I guess I will stay the night then." Stasia finished her fourth squirrel and was starting on her fifth. Andrea was still on her second squirrel. Stasia thought she was being to OCD about it or something; Andrea wanted to make sure that she had gotten the meat off the squirrel, perfectly. Although to Stasia it didn't matter, it was all going to the same place, hungry bellies.<p>

Stasia had finished deboning the squirrels and was now cutting them into chunks of meat. She had been having a good conversation with Andrea and Lori, but Lori had to go with Carol and Dale to the river to wash clothes and get water. They took the children with them so the kids could bath/play in the river. It was just Andrea, Stasia, T-dog and of course the giant ass hole Shane. Andrea had left Stasia to cut the meats, as she went searching the RV for rice or something else filling.

Stasia was enjoying her quiet time, although she did enjoy the conversation between the women, she still enjoyed her silence. But of course that was a short lived pleasure, as a shadow began to loom over her. Stasia already knew who it was. Just his presence made her skin crawl. Shane.

"So what were you and Lori talking about?" Shane asked when he knew she knew he was there.  
>"What does it matter?" Stasia replied, she didn't even look up from what she was doing. She just kept cutting chunks of meat. She didn't want him this close to her. She wanted him to leave and go kick a rock or something.<br>"It doesn't. I noticed y'all looking over at me at one point." Shane said trying to be nonchalant about it. There was something seriously off about this man. Stasia had a hard time putting her finger on it, but she knew, she just knew something wasn't right. She looked at him and stood when she finished cutting the last of the meat, She wiped her hands on the towel she had used before to clean her buck knife , then grabbed the now full of squirrel meat pan, "Are you paranoid or something?" She started to walk off towards the RV, when Shane grabbed her by the elbow hard almost making her drop the pan. She looked from the pan to Shane, "Don't. You. Ever fucking grab me like that again. I will fucking kill you." She jerked her arm out from his grip. He had a sickening smile across his mouth and she walked off to the RV. She noticed T-dog looking down at her. He had seen the scene that had just happened, he had a look of concern on his face. Stasia waved at him, more of a 'its fine' wave than a hi wave and then went in the RV.

"I was coming. I just found the rice. Thank goodness Dale still had some, There are at least 6 cups here-" Andrea looked at Stasia and noticed her pissed off face and stopped talking about the rice, "What happened?"  
>"How do y'all deal with Shane?" Stasia asked Andrea, placing the pan of meat down on the counter, "He just came up to me and asked what we were talking about. Apparently he thinks it was all about him or something, because we looked at him. After that I started to walk away and he fucking grabbed me." Stasia looked at Andrea, "Does he do that to everyone?"<br>"No not at all. I don't know what that was about." Andrea said, she started to fill a pot with rice and water, and the two women exited the RV to start cooking the food. Stasia and put about a cup of water into the pan she had of meat. She and Andrea walked over to where they had the fire. Andrea placed the pot down next to the fire and started to pile up sticks and logs and various fire starting things. Andrea started to head back to where Stasia was. Stasia grabbed some of the logs from Andrea and they both started to stack them appropriately.

The sound of the jeep coming back to camp rang through the air. As Stasia got the fire going the jeep with Daryl, Glenn, and Rick pulled back up. Stasia looked up from the catching fire and saw the men unloading the gas tanks.  
>Carl ran up to Rick and hugged him while Lori walked up and gave him a kiss. Stasia looked over to see Shane staring darkly at Rick and Lori. Stasia was confused by this. Then she heard someone walking up to her. It was Rick and Lori.<br>"Lori tell me that you were thinking of leaving tonight." Rick said when he reached where she was  
>"Well, yeah, I was going to," Stasia stuck her hands in her back pockets, grabbing her altoids tin, "But Lori tells me that y'all won't let me." Stasia laughed a little bit, stuffed a cigarette in her mouth bent over grabbed a stick that was on fire at one end and lit her cigarette.<br>"Well, you can leave if you want," Rick said as he wrapped one arm around Lori's waist. Stasia hadn't seen that kind of affection in a long time, although Lori looked like she had something else on her mind she still smiled at Rick, "But know we won't make you leave. In fact Lori thinks you would make a great addition to the group. We would love to have you with us."  
>Stasia smiled and nodded at Rick taking a drag of her cigarette, and letting out the smoke through her nose, "I don't know about all that now, but I will stay for tonight for sure. It's already getting dark." And with that Stasia went back to getting the squirrel cooked. Andrea had already set the rice and the water next to the fire to start boiling, and had left to help Carol take the clothes off the clothes line they had rigged up from the RV to a tree. Stasia put the pan with the squirrel in it on top of a makeshift range not directly on top of the fire but close enough. She sat next to the fire poking it with a stick making sure it wouldn't go out.<br>"So how was it?" Stasia looked up to see Daryl sitting next to her and he put his own cigarette in his mouth, "Anyone give you any shit?"  
>Stasia seemed to think he was asking if Shane had pissed her off, which he did, but she wasn't sure she should tell Daryl that.<br>"Nah, Andrea helped me debone the squirrel and Lori came talk with me." Stasia told Daryl, She resumed poking at the fire with her sick. She ashed her cigarette into the fire and then stuck the stick back into the fire. She looked over at Daryl, "Got some gas?"  
>"Not much, we have about one one whole tank. That's all we could find out there." Daryl took a drag of his cigarette and then flicked it into the fire. '<em>What a waste of a cigarette. Could have smoked the rest of that later.'<em> Stasia thought to herself as she shook her head at the waste.  
>"Here come on, they have an extra tent you can use. I'll show you where to set it up." Daryl stood up and started to walk to the RV, Stasia stood up and followed him.<p>

They got the tent set up next to his and Glenn's tent. Andrea had taken the rice out of the fire to sit and finish cook and Lori and took over the squirrel so that Stasia could get set up. Everyone was fixing a plate of food by the time she had got everything ready in her tent. Stasia was the last to get a plate, and even though there was enough to eat more, she didn't take that much in case the kids wanted more. She had a soft spot for children.  
>"Dale, do you want to take first watch again tonight?" Rick asked in between bites.<br>"I was hoping someone else could do it tonight," Dale spoke, this was really the first time that Stasia had heard him speak. He had a very kind and wise voice about him, "I didn't get much sleep last night."  
>"I can do it," Stasia spoke up. She felt that because she was a guest that it should be her duty. They all looked up at her, even Shane, even when he wasn't trying to creep her out he managed to do it. She looked over to Rick who was sitting to her left next to Lori, "I don't mind, I slept great last night."<br>"Okay that will work, thanks Stasia." Rick said and then the normal chatter resumed around the camp fire. The sun had already gone down and the only light that was there was the light from the camp fire and the lantern they had lit by the RV.  
>Dale stopped talking to Andrea and turned to face Stasia, "Thank you for offering to take first watch tonight. It means a lot to me. If there is anything that you need you don't hesitate to ask me okay?"<br>Stasia nodded her head, "Okay thanks, Dale." She smiled at him and he went back to his conversation with Andrea.

How hard could watching the night be? Just stand on top of an RV and make sure no walkers come around, and if they do Stasia could handle them herself. If they were about 12 maybe she would wake someone up to help. She doubted anything like that would happen.

Just a night of peace and quiet.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading! I have already started the next chapter.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Hey everyone! thanks to my new follower, **__**L'ange maudit**__**! I get so excited every time I see I have a new follower, Favorite, or Review. I hope to continue to get more followers, favorites, and reviews. So please, let me know your feelings about my story, your thoughts do matter to me :)**_

_**Here is chapter 7, I hope you enjoy it. I find this is more of a filler chapter.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or its characters, I only own my own ideas and character Anastasia.**_

_**Enjoy the chapter :)**_

Lori, Carol, and the children were the first to go to bed. Daryl was sitting by his tent sharpening his knife. Dale was talking to Rick. T-dog and Glenn were making sure the gas tanks were secure to the back of the RV, and Shane was kicking dirt on the fire to put it out. Stasia wasn't entirely sure where Andrea was, maybe she had already gone to bed.  
>After the fire was out the only light they had was the lantern they had next to the RV. Stasia walked over to the RV and was about to start climbing the ladder to get on top of the RV when Glenn stopped her.<br>"Hey, Anastasia was it?" Glenn had a soft voice compared to the other men. He had black hair and was probably around her height.

Stasia faced him and gave him a friendly smile as she held out her hand, "Yeah that's me, call me Stasia though. You're Glenn right?"

"Yup, "Glenn took her hand and shook it, "I'm second watch tonight. So probably around 2 or 3 in the morning you can come wake me up, "He pointed at the tent next to hers, "That's my tent."

Stasia nodded at this and then she scratched under her bun, "Um, Glenn," She got his attention before he walked away. He turned to her and she continued with her question, "How am I supposed to know when it is 2am? I don't know about you, but telling time at night is pretty difficult for me." Even though it was a full moon that night and the sky was clear enough. Stasia never took the time to really learn how to judge the time at night by the moon like she did with the sun during the day. She didn't think it would matter, seeing as she was normally sleeping at night.

"Hmm, good point." Glenn rubbed the back of his neck as he thought, "Oh, I have an idea. I'll be right back." With that Glenn rushed off to where Dale and Rick were standing. Glenn was talking to Dale about something. Then she saw that Dale nodded his head and then started fiddling with something on his wrist. Stasia thought it must have been a watch. Dale then handed it to Glenn and had one final thing to saw before he looked to Stasia and smiled and waved. Stasia returned the wave and smile.

"Okay, Dale said you could use his watch." Glenn stopped a few feet from Stasia and held it out to her," But he said you have to keep it on your wrist at all times. It kind of has sentimental values to him"

Stasia took the watch, looked over at Dale who was watching her, She raised the watch and her wrist and then made sure he could see her putting it on her wrist. He smiled once more and then went back to his conversation with Rick. Stasia looked back at Glenn, "That was very nice of him."

"Yeah the old guy is a really nice man, but he can be pretty deadly too." Glenn stuck his hands in his pockets, "I once saw him cut a Geeks head clean off with a dull axe."

"Dang." Stasia said, to be honest she didn't think he was the type to do that. She more thought him to be just the grandfatherly/fatherly figure around there to give out advice. Or something like that. Seems like she was wrong. She wondered about what else around there she was wrong about.

"Yeah, well, I better get to bed so I'm not tired when you come wake me up." Dale said his good byes to her then was off to his tent. Stasia had no one else who wanted to talk to her so she then grabbed a rung from the ladder and started her way up to the top of the RV.

Rick gave her a hunting rifle if she had needed it, but she didn't think she would use it, especially if it were just 2 or 3 walkers. That would draw too much attention to the camp. She set the rifle down next to the lawn chair they had up there, and plopped down in it. She sighed and leaned back; looking down at the watch Dale had let her use. It was 10:10pm. She thought it had been earlier than that. Time went by really quickly at night for some reason. Maybe because she couldn't tell time at night. She didn't know and wasn't about to find out answers.

"Hey Stasia," Some called up to her, it had sounded like Dale. She looked down at the older man who was looking up at her, "We are turning off this lantern now, good night."

Stasia nodded her head and started to look back at the road, "Oh, Dale." She called back to him, "Thanks for letting me use your watch, don't worry I'll take good care of it."

Dale nodded and then took the lantern inside the RV. Stasia noted the sudden darkness which meant he had turned off the lantern. She didn't see or hear him coming back out the RV. Maybe he was sleeping in the RV. Stasia looked back out at the road, her eyes taking a minute to get used of the lack of light. The only light she had was the light coming off the large full moon. It was fairly easy to see though, obviously, not as easy to see during the day.

Stasia liked most of the group. The only one she hasn't talked to was T-dog. She didn't really get that much time with Carol either. There was something about Carol. A timidness to her, Stasia wasn't sure if she was right. After all she was wrong about Dale.

She took Glenn as a bright and quick-thinking guy. She wasn't sure how old he was. He had to be around her age. They were the youngest, after the children that was for sure. She wouldn't have minded getting to know him more than she did, but she wouldn't get that chance. She didn't think she was going to go with them. Especially with the way that Shane acts.

Shane gave off an arrogant vibe. She didn't like him at all. In fact if he was on fire she would even spit on him. She didn't like the way he spoke to her, and she definitely didn't like he way he grabbed her earlier. The way he looked at Lori and Carl. There was always something in his eyes. She didn't know what it was and she didn't want to know. The way he looked her, too. He just stares at her. Just a cold, dark stare. Normally it didn't bother her when people stared, not that many people stared at her, but before the outbreak, it didn't.

Rick, Lori, and Carl where cute. They had this, 'we are going to be a normal family, even though the world has gone to hell' feel about them. Well maybe Rick and Carl had that about them, Lori on the other hand. Lori looked like there was something that she was hiding. Maybe this whole group had something to hide.

Andrea had made a bad first impression, but had made it up by helping clean the squirrels.

And T-dog she knew next to nothing about. She wouldn't have time to, and that didn't bother her.

Daryl, she felt closest to him. Not just because she knew him longer and got to talk with him longer, but because she felt they were more alike than anyone else in the group. She hunted, he hunted. She was an archer, he was an archer. She was quite, he was mostly quite. He was really the only one she was sad about not getting to know more.

She knew now that she was going to go back home in the morning, it didn't matter how much she wanted to get to know Daryl, Glenn, or Dale. She just knew she didn't want to spend anymore unnecessary time with Shane. He had a complete lack of respect, and there was something very wrong with this man. All he did was raise red-flags. She didn't want to endanger herself because she chose to stay with the group.

It would be a shame she wouldn't get to know the rest of the group, they at least seemed nice enough. But it wasn't worth it.

-3 hours later-

Stasia was leaning back in the chair, she glanced down at the watch. It was 1:15 am. Soon she would be having to wake up Glenn. She thought about waiting till 3am. She wasn't very tired. She looked out at the road and noticed a blackness slowly creeping its way around cars about a mile away. Her eyes had gotten used to the moonlight and it was almost as good as the sun to her now. Although she could really make out what the blackness was. Although she had a sinking feeling in her stomach she knew exactly what it was. She stood up and looked through her nocs and confirmed her suspicions. It was the horde that came through the town when she met Daryl. She hurried down the side of the RV and made her way to Daryl's tent. She crawled in and made her way to his side.

"Daryl," Stasia whispered, shaking his shoulder lightly, "Daryl wake up."

"Ughnom," He murmured, his eyes opening slightly to see her, he smiled, "Well I didn't expect you in my tent so soon." He laughed a little bit and then he started rubbing her arm.

Stasia's hand made a quick connect with his face, "Wake the fuck up!" She said loud enough for him to wake out of this apparent dream he was still in.

"What the fuck?!" Daryl shot up into a seated position rubbing his red cheek staring at her, "What the fuck was that for?"

Stasia had no time to apologize, "I need your help waking up the others. We need to get them out quick. We don't want to cause a panic though."

Daryl saw the concern in her face, "What is it, Anastasia?"

"The horde." Was all she said and then she was out of the tent with Daryl close behind her.

Stasia went to Glenn's tent and Daryl went to Rick, Lori, and Carl's tent. Soon everyone was up and packing up. No one other than Stasia, Daryl, Rick, and Shane knew what was going on. They were all loading up the RV. Stasia standing next to Daryl's bike looking out at in approaching horde through the nocs. They were getting too close for them to keep going at this pace. Stasia turned to see Daryl standing right behind her looking at the darkness.

"Everyone is packed up and getting in the RV and Jeep." Daryl said as he turned his attention from the horde that was now less than fifty feet away to Stasia, The RV started it's engine followed by the jeep. The RV and jeep took off down the highway. Daryl got on his bike and started it, "Looks like your coming with us again." Daryl patted the seat behind him. She sighed he was right. There was no way she could get away from the horde. They had already seen her, smelled her. She wouldn't be able to hide in a tree and wait for them to pass. She had to go with them. She felt Daryl grab her wrist and pull her onto the bike. She held on as he sped off just in time, she was able to make out the faces of the walkers in the horde then. She wrapped her arms around Daryl's waist as they drove off. She wasn't happy about having to leave her town, maybe she could make her way back one day.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by to read. I want to hear what you think! Please Review! I've only got 3, but then again I've only got 7 followers. Hmmm, is there anything that I can improve upon? PM me and let me know!**_

_**Review the story! PLEASE! *Gets on knees and begs readers* lol**_

_**Enjoy the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters. I just own my own ideas and character Anastasia.**_

They traveled down the highway until the sky started to turn into a orange color. Signaling that the night had ended and the new day was starting. Stasia had drifted off to sleep. Daryl must have noticed by the way she loosened her grip and had her head on his back. He had grabbed her wrists and held them there around his waist so she could continue to sleep.

It was a short lived sleep, the caravan was slowing to a stop. Daryl nudged Stasia awake. She opened her eyes and looked around her surroundings. They had gone far. They were now parked out in front of a large parking lot for a super wal-mart. From where they were it didn't look like there was too much looting done on the inside of the store. Stasia knew that looks could be deceiving. She got off the bike and watched as Rick came out the RV and went over to the jeep where Shane was still sitting in the drivers seat, with T-dog in the passengers. Rick waved Stasia and Daryl over to the Jeep. She didn't want to go over there, she didn't even want to be as close as she was with a RV in between her and Shane. She walked over with Daryl reluctantly.

"Glad to see you're still here, Anastasia." Shane said with a sarcastic tone to his voice.

Rick heard the sarcasm in his voice and spoke before Stasia had a chance to say anything, "Shut the hell up Shane. She is an asset and we are happy to have her." Shane scoffed and then Rick turned to Daryl and Stasia, "You two want to go check out the area for walkers?"

Stasia and Daryl nodded then they set off one going around the left side of the parking lot and one going around the right side. Stasia had her bow ready, but didn't have her arrow drawn back. She scanned the area around the outside of the parking lot. She didn't really see anything of immediate danger. She looked into the actual parking lot, Rick and Shane were watching the backs of T-dog and Glenn as they searched the cars for gas and things that the group needed. Stasia went back to looking for walkers. Her mind going to the fact that she was now with these people. She wasn't going to join their group she was going to just go back home to her little tree house. Stay unattached, stay safe.

Stasia decided that if she was going to be with these people, she would keep a safe distance emotionally. She promised herself that she wouldn't get attached; she would stay as far outside as she could.

She also wasn't going to let anyone get to attached to her. If, God forbid, they would get attached to her and she were in trouble, if someone got hurt or died because they tried to help her. Well, she wouldn't know what to do with herself.

Stasia went around the back of the store, continuing her scan. There were 4 walkers back there close enough to where they could pose a problem. She drew back her arrow and shot the closest on in the eye. The other walkers noticed her and started hobbling her way, making their little growl/gurgling noises. She pulled back another arrow and shot the next closest one. The female walker fell on top of the first one. Stasia made quick work of the other two.

"You could save any action for me could ya?" Daryl had come around the corner while Stasia was pulling the arrows out of the heads of the walkers.

Stasia laughed and pulled the last arrow out, "Next time, I'll just stand here and let them come at me and wait for you." She cleaned off the arrow and put it back with the others, "We should go back around, maybe there is stuff still inside the store."

Daryl nodded at this, and they walked back around to the front of the store. Rick and Shane were at the front doors talking about something, maybe it was about their next move. She didn't know.

"Anything back there?" Rick asked as Daryl and Stasia got close to them, Shane turning towards them his hands resting on his hips.

"Just a few walkers, Anastasia took them out pretty quick though." Daryl said resting his cross bow on his shoulder.

"Good job," Rick nodded his head in approval, "We want to check out what is inside."

"I was just saying that," Stasia said scratching underneath her bun, "Doesn't look like there is much damage to the doors. There might still be some good stuff in side."

"Well then let's go," Shane said as he started walking to the only broken glass pane of the front doors, Rick, Daryl, and Stasia followed. As they entered, everyone was blinded for a few seconds. It was the shock of going from daylight to inside the darkness of the store. There was a disgusting smell in the air, probably a combination of rotten food and dead things.

Stasia reached into the side pocket of her book sack and grabbed her flash light clicking it on. Followed by the rest clicking on their own flash lights. Of course the store had been raided, but there was still a bunch of good stuff. She started walking to one of the checkout lanes and grabbed two bags and instantly started filling it with batteries of all sizes from the checkout line.

"Stasia, you shouldn't go by yourself." Rick called to her. It wasn't like she was that far away, but she had forgotten about them when she saw all those batteries.

"I'll go with her," Shane spoke up.

"That's okay," Stasia turned to them putting her now half full bag of batteries on the checkout line, "I'd rather be locked in a room with a Geek then be alone with you."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Shane got louder. What was it with people getting louder? Did they think it made then seem smarter, or maybe tougher? To Stasia it just made them seem more arrogant.

"Exactly what I just said," She looked over at Rick and Daryl, "Did that make no sense or something?"

"You fucking bi-" Shane started, but was quickly cut off by Rick,

"Shane, go with Daryl. I'll go with Stasia." Rick walked over to Stasia side. Shane scoffed and you could see the distaste in Daryl's face. They walked off in the other direction.

Once they were gone Rick turned to Stasia, "T-dog told me what happened."

"Oh yeah?" Stasia said in reply, she had turned and was continuing to fill her shopping bag with batteries.

"Yeah, now I don't know what happened –"

"Well, I can't say I know entirely either," Stasia cut him off turning to him, her face serious, "But I can tell you that there is something seriously wrong with him." Stasia grabbed another 2 bags and started walking towards an aisle.

"He just isn't trusting of other people. He was probably-"

Stasia cut him off again, "look I don't care what he was trying to do. If he grabs me like that again, out of respect for you I won't kill him," she stopped in front of the little candle aisle, scanning the shelf of taper candles and tea lights, "but that doesn't mean I won't seriously maim him." She found a few candles and started stuffing boxes of taper candles and bags of tea lights.

"Fair enough." Rick said, it sounded like he was about to say something else but he stopped. Daryl and Shane had come around the corner; they had 4 bags full of canned foods. Stasia could feel the burning stare of Shane against her back as she filled her bag with all of the candles. She and rick went back to the checkout line where the bag of batteries where and put the bag of candles,

"Shane come on, let's go check out the auto section. See if we can find some oil." Rick said walking off in the direction of to auto. Shane followed, he seemed to be happy leaving Daryl. Daryl too looked just as relieved that they were splitting. Daryl walked over to Stasia, she was putting the bags into a basket. There wasn't anyway that they could all carry the bags out.

"Where have y'all looked?" Stasia asked turning to Daryl when he reached her

"Grocery was basically empty, we grabbed all we could find." Daryl rubbed the back of his neck.

"Maybe we should see if we can get into the pharmacy." Stasia nodded in the direction of the pharmacy. Daryl nodded and they started to walk over there. As expected the shelves were mostly bare. There were a few boxes of bandages and some bottles of Advil and cold and flu medicine. She scooped up everything she could find. It didn't matter if they needed it or not she was sticking it in the bag, prenatal vitamins, heart burn medicine, the emergency contraceptive pills, hell she even grabbed a few tubes of preparation h.

When Daryl saw this he started to laugh, "Do you really think we need that?"

Stasia shoved Daryl playfully, "Shut up, you don't know if anyone does need that but is too embarrassed to ask for it."

Daryl hadn't thought about that, the world may have ended but he was sure some people were still embarrassed about certain things. Stasia handed him the bag then she went to the feminine care section and started to fill a bag with things for the ladies in the group. Daryl looked extremely uncomfortable. There wasn't much on the shelf so he wasn't going to have to suffer much.

"Want to see if we can get into the pharmacy?" Stasia asked nodding to the pharmacy counter. The metal shudders were down, and it didn't look like anyone had gotten in. Even though it was obvious that people tried, there were scratches in the metal.

Stasia and Daryl walked over to the door, she watch him inspect the door where the scratches are, "We're not gonna get in without something to pry this door open."

Stasia then started to look around for something to open the door with, maybe the people before had dropped something. She walked down a few aisles, the smell of something dead kept getting stronger as she walked closer to the gardening department. Daryl wasn't far behind her, helping look.

While she was scanning for something useful to pry a door open with her light from the flash light went over a large section of seeds. There were plenty baggies of seeds. She grabbed a handful of tomato, cucumber, squash, corn, green beans, and herbs. Then she continued looking for something to open the door with. She happened across a trowel and grabbed that. She didn't think it would work. And if not then they could use it if they ever found a place to plant the seeds.

She was about to start heading back when she shined her light on a pool of dried blood. She pulled her buck knife out and held it at the ready. She started to get closer; the smell of something dead was much, much stronger now, burning the inside of her nose. The smell was accompanied by the familiar sound of a walker eating. She rounded the corner and there was a walker eating someone who had been dead a very long time. There were flies buzzing around its rotting corpse. The light alerted the walker, he turned with a mouthful of rotted flesh hanging out its mouth. The sight of fresher meat made him drop the flesh and rise starting its way to her, making those growling, hissing sounds. Stasia shoved the knife up under it's jaw and into his brain. She had pulled the knife out and was cleaning it on her pants, when a second walked came out the shadows to her right and grabbed her shoulder pulling her to the ground with it. Stasia let out a surprised yelp. Stasia thought she heard her name being called out, but she really couldn't say. The only sounds that filled her ears where the sounds of the snarling coming from the walker.

When they hit the ground her knife was knocked out her hand. Leaving her defenseless. She was struggling to keep his snapping jaws away from her face and his hand from scratching her. She got her foot under the walker and kicked him off with all her might. As the walker stumbled back, Stasia noticed Daryl rushing behind the walker stabbing his own knife into the walkers brain.

"Are you okay?" Daryl knelt down beside her. Shining the light over her skin, looking her over for bites or scratches.

"I'm fine, Thanks." She sat up after catching her breath, she saw a crowbar and grabbed it while she was standing up, "I could have handled that though."

Daryl raised an eyebrow, but decided not to say anything. He just followed her back to the pharmacy. She handed him the crowbar and stood back as she watched him try and pry the door open. It wouldn't budge.

"God, they sure made sure no one was getting in here." She said after Daryl got aggravated, "Here lets try together." She stood in front of him, and as he pulled on the crowbar, she pushed. After about 3 tries, and when they were about to give up the door finally gave. Surprising them both, making Daryl fall backwards and Stasia fall on top of him.

Stasia winced in pain a little bit, she had smashed her finger between the floor and the crowbar. She got off Daryl and shook her hand, "Are you okay?" Daryl asked

Stasia shot him a side eye, "How about this, I will let you know when I'm not okay." She laughed a little bit, that had been the second time he asked her if she was 'okay' in less than 20 minutes. She stood and held her hand out and helped Daryl up.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Hey everyone, how are you doing. Thanks to my new followers! Here is just a FYI, I'm going to be moving soon so I probably wont be able to post new chapters till i get my internet set up at my new house. I just want you to know that so you dont think i just dipped out of my story. I'll still be writing the chapters and such but I wont be able to actually get them up. I will let y'all know for sure when that is going to be happening.**_

_**Enjoy the chapter! Please Review!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters, I only own my own ideas and character Anastasia.**_

They walked into the pharmacy, it was almost completely stocked. Except for a few things, which wasn't that big of a deal. They were just grateful that there was so much stuff in there.

Stasia hurried to the checkout area of the pharmacy and grabbed and bag and started to fill it with big bottles of antibiotics and pain pills. Daryl had grabbed his own bag and started to fill it with steroids packs and antiseptics. Once their bags were full, they walked out grabbing their other full bags.

They met Rick and Shane at the front putting the bags in the cart.

"What is all that?" Rick asked, a little in disbelief at the awesome scavenge.

"A ton of medical supplies." Daryl answered and they all started back out the break in the window. Shane helped Daryl get the full cart out of the window and they started to wheel out into the parking lot. Stasia was the last one out. She had stopped and grabbed a deck of cards for Carl. Stasia didn't even know if Carl liked cards, but she felt bad that she had given Sofia that doll and had nothing for Carl.

They were back on the road, Stasia had given Dale back his watch and her wrist felt naked now. They were looking for a new place to set up camp. Stasia was riding in the RV this time. She sat across from Carol and her daughter, with Lori at her right. Carl was sitting up front with Dale, talking about engine parts or something. Andrea was in the back sitting on the bed organizing the antibiotics and pain pills. Glenn and T-dog were riding with Shane in the Jeep. Rick was standing in the front with Dale and Carl, he had a map in his hand.

"I didn't even want to stop there," Lori said, she was arranging the bandages according to size and type in a blue basket, "I'm glad we did though."

"Yeah, that was a great find." Stasia was playing go fish with Sofia, Carl had let her play with them, since he was 'needed' up front, "You got any 7's?"

"Go fish!" Sofia was beating her, Stasia grumbled a little bit and then drew her new card. She wasn't even letting the girl win. She just always sucked at Go Fish.

"Why did you grab seeds though, and these prenatal vitamins?" Carol ask, she was holding a packet of cucumber seeds in one hand and the vitamins in the other.

"Do you have any queens?" Sofia asked, Stasia handed over her queen to her.

Stasia turned her attention to Carol, handing her queen to Sofia, "I found a place to stay, I would have killed to have seeds. You never know when you'll find a place to stay for good. And for the vitamins, that's in case someone get pregnant, I'm sure there are lots of unprotected," Stasia stopped and looked at Sofia who was rearranging her cards waiting patiently for her to take her turn, "'activities' happening. And then if not. They work just as good as normal vitamins, "Stasia looked back at Sofia and smile, "Got any 8's?" Sofia made a face and handed over her 8.

"Oh, well that makes sense." Carol put the seeds back in the bag and handed Lori the vitamins. Lori had finished organizing the bandages and was now reading the back of the bottle.

Sofia had asked for a 4, Stasia told her to Go Fish. Lori turned to Stasia, "Thanks for helping the men find all this stuff. We needed the canned food. Oh thanks for the cards too."

Stasia nodded her head as she asked Sofia for a 8 again, Sofia handed it over. Sofia laid her cards down and announced she didn't want to play anymore and that she was tired. Carol got up and walked Sofia to the back.

Stasia then stood up and went around to the other side of the table and sat down. She looked at Lori, "So Lori, " Stasia got Lori's attention, "What's the deal with Shane?"

Lori had a little bit of a worried look on her face, "What about Shane?"

"The day before we left camp, he came up to me and asked what we were talking about. Like our whole conversation was about him. He seems paranoid." Stasia looked out the window resting her head in her hand.

"He used to be the leader of the group, then Rick came back. I think he is having trouble adjusting with that, " Lori answered. Stasia looked back at Lori. It seemed like she was holding something back. Stasia didn't pry though. She just looked back out the window. It seemed Lori could tell Stasia didn't believe that was all there was to it.

It was probably around 5 or 6 pm from where the sun was in the sky. The caravan had come to a stop off a side road. It seemed like they were going to set up camp. Everyone was out of the RV and Jeep and moving quickly around area. Daryl and Rick had gone to look around. Andrea, Carol, and Lori were setting up clothes lines. Glenn was working on making places for fires. Stasia felt kind of useless, she wasn't told what to do, and she didn't even really know where to begin.

"Hey Stasia," T-dog walked up to her, "Do you want to help me set up tents?"

Stasia smiled and nodded her head, "Yeah that would be great, I didn't want to stand around anymore."

T-dog motioned his hand for her to follow him, she did. They had walked over to the Jeep and he started to hand her tents that were bagged up. After her arms were full with the tents and she couldn't carry anymore she made her way over to where T-dog had pointed her. She had her own tent, Glenn's, and Daryl's. She guessed they kept them in the same order. This made sense because at night when the fires weren't going it was very hard to tell whose tent was whose.

Stasia set them down on the ground and started to take the bag off of Glenn's tent. She looked up to see T-dog standing there, "Want me to show you how to set these up?" He motioned to the tent with his hand.

"Sure, I guess it won't hurt." Stasia pulled the tent out of the bag.

T-dog smiled and grabbed Glenn's tent and showed her how to set them up. It was easy. While he showed her how to set them up they talked a little bit. She learned a bit about T-dog, and he even told her about Jacqui. Even how she died back at the CDC. It was sad, Stasia understood T-dog's sadness but she also understood that if Jacqui wanted to go then she wanted to go. Stasia was surprised, though, to learn that Andrea had wanted to stay and die as well, which surprised Stasia. Andrea seemed like she was okay, mentally. Not suicidal that was, but as Stasia knew, looks were deciving.

T-dog had gone back to setting up the other tents. Stasia had finished setting up Glenn's tent and her own and was working on Daryl's. Stasia was inside the tent pulling up the last of the poles when she heard someone behind her. She turned around and saw Daryl standing there.

"Hi," Stasia said as she finished click the pole into its final position.

Daryl had grabbed his bedding and had drug it in behind him, "Thanks for getting my tent up."

Stasia nodded and rubbed the back of her neck, Daryl was standing in the way of the exit and she had that nervous feeling again like she had back in her tree house. It had to be the fact that she wasn't normally around people. If that were the case, though, wouldn't she feel just as weird around Lori, Carol, and Andrea?

"Yeah, no problem." Stasia looked around the tent awkwardly.

"We found a river not too far from here; want to go help get water?" Daryl said as he rested his crossbow on his shoulder.

"Sure." She answered. Daryl turned on his heel and was out the tent, Stasia followed. When she exited the tent she looked around. Both Rick and Shane were both back, they were huddled around the Jeep with T-dog. It was starting to seem like that was their hang out. They were always planning their next move. Stasia was glad she had found a place to stay put, although her little towns resources were running dry. She missed her tree house. She missed not having to constantly run. She missed being able to sleep at night without fear of walkers. She missed so many things about it, but right now there was nothing she could do. She was too far away to walk back alone, and she didn't want to ask Rick to bring her back and endanger everyone else in the group. She would have to get used to the constant moving and night watches.

"Here," Daryl interrupted her thoughts, she looked at him. He was handing her 2 buckets. Glenn had run up to them with his own buckets. "Y'all ready to go?" Daryl looked from Stasia to Glenn.

"Yeah lets go." Glenn replied as he nodded his head then looking over at Stasia. She nodded her head as well.

Daryl was the first to head out. He was watching for walkers, even though they had cleared the area already there was always that possibility of one being looked over.

The leaves and sticks crunched under Glenn's feet, Stasia could see that that annoyed Daryl slightly. Stasia however barely made any noise. From the years of her father teaching her how to be light on her feet, it had just become second nature for her. She watched as Daryl looked around, she started to bit the inside of her bottom lip.

"Stasia?" Glenn's words had finally reached her, apparently he had been talking to her for a little bit and she just hadn't noticed. She was always able to tune out things, but never when she didn't want to. Maybe that had something to do with her being alone for so long too. She didn't know.

"Sorry, what's up?" She looked over at Glenn, she spoke low enough for him to hear her, but not loud enough for walkers, if they were around, to hear.

"I was just asking where you learned to shoot a bow." Glenn had a look of genuine interest on his face. She had been asked multiple times by different people the same question, just in different ways. She was starting to get tired of answering the same thing over and over. She was the new person though. She was the new interesting mysterious person everyone wanted to know about.

"My father, he taught me how to hunt and taught me with a bow first over the gun." Stasia answered looking back at the path they were walking. She put both buckets hanging on one arm and swatted a mosquito off her neck.

"Why did he make you learn a bow first?" Glenn was still looking at her when he asked. He didn't see the root that he was walking right towards.

Stasia reached out and moved him out of its path before he tripped over it, "He was all about stealth," She let him go once he was past the root, he was looking down at it as they past, "If you missed with the arrow you had more of a chance to get it the second time around, where as if you used a gun if you missed the deer would bolt and you would have to chase and possibly lose it."

Glenn nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders, "Makes sense."

Stasia laughed a little bit. Daryl had stopped being aggravated as they reached the river, "Here we are."

**_A/N: Thanks for reading, please Review!_**


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by to read my newest chapter! Thanks for my new review from **__**sillygabby**__**, I love getting reviews! I get all tingly inside and super excited when I get that email saying I've got a new review! So please people keep them coming!  
><strong>__**SillyGabby**__**: You are totally and completely right, Shane is a wonderful antagonist! Yeah I'm not too sure how much longer Stasia is going to be able to keep the feels at bay LOL!**_

_**Well enjoy the story! Let me know what you guys think!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters, I only own my own ideas and character, Anastasia (Stasia)**_

The river was a slow moving river. That was good, if the kids wanted to play in it they wouldn't have to worry about the them being swept away. It wasn't too muggy which was also good, though they would still boil it before drinking it. Stasia thought that if it were up to her she would make herself a little tree house up in some of these trees and live there. The tree line stopped about 20 or 30 feet away from the river, so there really wouldn't be too many options for something or someone to sneak up on someone.

Stasia walked to the river's edge with Glenn not too far to her right. She squatted down and stuck her hands into the water, it was nice and cool not freezing though. She took the water and splashed her face with it and then rubbed the back of her neck, Glenn was doing the same. She then rolled her pants up to her knees and took off her socks and shoes and walked out into the water with one of her buckets, till it reached just below her pants and then bent over and let the bucket slowly fill with the river water. She did her best to keep the mud at the bottom from getting into her bucket. After it was full she stood straight and turned back to the river's edge and saw Daryl watching her instead of looking around like she thought he was there for. She suddenly felt hot, like she was embarrassed. But what did she have to be embarrassed about? She quickly shoved it off and made her way back to the shore and put the now heavy with water bucket down on a level patch of ground and then took her second bucket out. Glenn was walking back with his first filled bucket and doing the same as she was. She didn't feel Daryl's eyes on her anymore as she started to fill her second bucket, but she didn't turn to make sure.

After they were finished filling their buckets, Stasia and Glenn put their shoes back on and they all started to head back to camp. Stasia was doing her best not to spill any water, but with them now full with water it was hard to. Maybe she should have offered to go hunting instead, carrying dead squirrels was a lot easier then 2 full 5 gallon buckets sloshing with water.

Daryl turned to see that she was falling behind a little bit and stopped to let her catch up, then grabbed a bucket from her. She looked at him and smiled, "Thanks, these damn things are heavy." Daryl just nodded and then started back on the path. Stasia started to bite at the inside of her lower lip again. With the one bucket it was much easier to keep up and soon they were back with the camp.

"We got water!" Glenn announced happily. He set his buckets down not too far from where the fire was supposed to be. Stasia and Daryl set theirs down next to them. Glenn rushed off to go talk to Rick about what he was supposed to do next, leaving Stasia alone with Daryl. She rubbed her arm out of nervousness, and shifted on her feet.

"I'm going to go hunting," Stasia said abruptly turning on her heel walking to her bow, which was resting next to her tent with her quiver and her backpack.

"You shouldn't go alone." Daryl was right behind her, "I'll come with you."

Stasia grabbed her bow and backpack, turned to face Daryl, "You know, I was alone before y'all came to town," She turned and started walking to the forest edge, looked over her shoulder at Daryl, "I think I'll be fine on my own."

Daryl just stood there looking at her as she walked off into the woods, a look of confusion or wonder. She wouldn't be able to tell if she looked.

She was about an hour into the woods when she decided that she was far off enough to start her actual hunting. She crouched low and started scanning the trees and around her for any sign of life. She heard a rustling and Stasia turned quickly yet quietly to her left. There was a nice size deer standing not but 15 yards away. She quietly grabbed an arrow and drew it back. She took aim then took a breath and let it out slowly and took a long one in and held it as she let the arrow fly. The arrow found its mark right in the heart of the deer. It yelped and started to run off.

Stasia stood and smiled, she knew the deer wouldn't get far before it died. She didn't even bother with the squirrels she saw running from the branches. She started off in the direction to find her prize.

"Well, this is all fine and dandy, " Stasia said to herself as she followed the blood trail to the now dying deer laying in the dirt, "How am I going to get this back?" She knelt down next to it and pulled out her buck knife and put the deer out of it's suffering. Stasia then looked around the area making sure the noise of the dying deer didn't attract any unwanted attention. After the quick inspection she looked back down at the deer, "This is going to take forever to get this back to camp," She grabbed it by its antlers and started to drag it back in the direction of the camp, "Maybe I shouldn't have told Daryl that I would be fine."

This deer was heavier than she thought it would be. She had maybe made it back to where she first saw the deer and that took three times as long as it took her to find the deer, and she had an hour ( walking back by herself)left to go before she made it back to camp. She stopped and tried to think of a better plan for dragging the deer back to camp, "I really should have let Daryl come," She said to herself as she grabbed her backpack off her back and opened it grabbing her rope, "This would have been a hell of a lot easier."

She tied the rope around the base of the deer's antlers. She then turned and started to pull the deer along with her. That was much easier, but it still would have been easier with a deer cart. Too bad the world went to shit and there wasn't really any reason to lug one of those around.

"These people better be happy with this." Stasia said to herself as she felt the rope digging uncomfortably into her shoulder. She could feel the rope starting to burn her flesh from all the rubbing from her dragging the heavy deer behind her.

Soon she was more than half way to the camp and stopped to take a breather. She sat next to the deer and looked at its open dead eyes. She looked up into the trees and saw squirrels running from branch to branch. That was always a good sign, which meant that nothing had passed through there recently. She then looked up into the canopy of the trees. The sky wasn't as bright as it was when she left, it would be sunset soon. She had to get back up and hurry back to camp. Being out alone at night with no shelter wasn't a good thing. She stood and grabbed the rope and resumed her dragging.

She reached the edge of the forest. The group was busy doing various things, no one noticed her yet. Lori and Carol were hanging up clothes, Sofia and Carl were playing with the cards, T-dog was standing on top of the RV looking back towards the road, Shane and Rick were looking still looking at the map, Dale and Andrea were talking, Glenn was starting fires in the designated spots, and Daryl..Well she didn't see Daryl. She finished dragging the deer out of the woods.

Glenn had looked up from the fires and saw Stasia struggling with the deer, "Stasia! Woah," Glenn stood and made his way over to her grabbing the rope from her and patting her sore shoulder. She winced a little bit, her flesh raw from the rubbing of the rope and her muscles hurting from the dragging of the heavy deer, "Oh, sorry. Go sit down." Glenn motioned to a chair in between her and Daryl's tent. She took him up on sitting and didn't even think twice about who would clean the deer. She just wanted to sit down and relax for a minute.

She watched as Glenn and Shane strung up the deer on a very thick tree branch. She leaned back onto the chair and closed her eyes,

"I guess you didn't need any help." Stasia opened her eyes to see Daryl standing over her, holding out a bottle of peroxide and a clean rag.

"I told you I would be fine," She grabbed the rag and the bottle, tilting the bottle to saturate the rag.

"That's a nice kill." Daryl nodded his head in the direction of the deer. Stasia looked over at the now being cleaned deer. She nodded her head and then put the rag to her raw and red with blood rope burn. She made a face at the initial burning of the peroxide.

"Yeah, it was a pain to get back though." Stasia removed the rag, the white foam still on her burn fizzing.

Daryl knelt down and took the rag from Stasia, "I bet," he then started to dab her burn with another rag he had. Stasia furrowed her eyebrows at this, she wasn't quite sure what was going on. She was fully capable of cleaning her own wounds, "He probably weighs 2 times more than you." Daryl took a bandage out of its wrapper and covered the burn.

Stasia looked at Daryl intently as he smoothed out the bandage over her skin. He looked up at her, the sun was fading from the sky, "That should do it." He said as he looked from the bandage to her.

She felt her ears going hot and that feeling coming back again. She looked at the ground, at anything really that wasn't him, and scratched the back of her neck, "Thanks." She muttered and quickly stood up from then chair and hurried into her tent.

She stood inside her tent touching where the bandage was. She was confused, she didn't know what to feel. She was having trouble adjusting to living with people. Men, women, children. She didn't really understand why it was so hard. She was used to shutting people out and not getting close. In fact she was doing quite well at that with everyone in the group, everyone except Daryl. The way he gently dried her burn, to the way he bandaged her up. She scratched her head. '_I just need to go to bed, I'm just tired.'_ She thought to herself.

She took off her dirty pants and white tank top. She stood there in her undergarments for a minute and then sat on her bed, taking off her thick black ankle boots and socks. She reached into her bag and grabbed her clean thin strapped dark navy blue shirt she had packed before she and Daryl left her tree house and pulled it over her head. Either Carol or Lori had put a pair of clean khaki shorts and a few pairs of socks in her tent while she was out hunting. She was glad too because she didn't want to wear the same dirty pants again. She pulled them on, they were a little more snug than she liked but they fit. She then pulled on her socks and then stopped when she was about to pull her boots on again. She looked at the exit for her tent and started chewing on the inside of her bottom lip. Her mind traveling back to Daryl. Even before the outbreak she had never met anyone like him. She didn't know how to feel about that though. She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. '_I'm having a hard time becoming civilized.'_ She chuckled a little bit to herself and then laid back on her cot. Maybe she didn't want to be civilized, she didn't know. All she knew was that her eye lids had become heavy and she couldn't stop herself from falling asleep.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Please Review!**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the new chapter! Thanks to all my new followers and to the people who Favorited my story. It means a lot to me. Please review.**_

_**Enjoy the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or it's characters, I only own my own ideas and character, Anastasia (Stasia)**_

The smell of cooking meat filled Stasia's nose. She stirred and rolled over in her cot reaching the edge too quickly and landed on the ground. Stasia groaned a little bit, '_this is not the best way to wake up,_' She thought to herself as she braced and pushed up. She grabbed onto the cot so she had something to balance on as she stood up. She was still groggy with sleep when she made it all the way up. She stretched her arms over her head and let out a yawn. She rubbed her right eye as she reached for the flap of the tent. She opened the flap and looked outside. It was dark out the only light in the sky was from the twinkling of the stars. The moon was just a sliver of itself.

There were three fires lit. Rick, Lori, Carl, and T-dog were sitting around the one farthest from her. The second fire had Carol, Sofia, Dale, Andrea and Shane sitting around that one. They were just starting to eat their deer they had cooked. The last fire closest to her tent just had Glenn and Daryl sitting around it. Seeing as that one was less crowed and was the closest to her she came out her tent and sat in the middle of Daryl and Glenn.

"Well Sleeping Beauty has woken up." Daryl said as he cracked a little smile holding out a plate with cooked meat on it and some veggies from the store that they had been too before setting up camp. Stasia looked at him from the corner of her eye. She cracked a small smile and grabbed the plate. She took the fork and filled it with food and took her bite.

"How is your shoulder?" Glenn asked, he had just finished his plate.

"It okay." Stasia said when she finished chewing her deer. She looked over at Glenn, "It was worth it,"

Glenn laughed, "Yeah it's a nice change of pace to have something other than squirrel." He let out a sudden yawn. He put his plate down next to where he was sitting and stood, "I better get to sleep, I'm on second watch tonight." He turned and crouched into his tent.

Stasia looked around the camp. Lori and Carl were going into their tent and Rick was climbing the RV, a rifle strapped to his back. Carol and Sofia, too, must have gone into their tent. T-dog and Dale were sitting talking about something, she couldn't read lips. But if she had to guess it was about tomorrow and what they were going to be doing. Shane still sat in his place with his back to the RV, he was staring at Rick, Lori, and Carl's tent. What was this guys problem, why was he always staring at Lori and Carl. Did Rick even notice? He had to have, or maybe he just chose not to notice. Shane looked over at Stasia and glared at her.

Stasia turned back to the fire and out of the corner of her eye she saw Daryl looking at her. She faced him and raised her eyebrow, "What?"

Daryl just shook his head and smiled, "Nothing," he grabbed a stick and started to poke the fire with it, "You're just different."

"Different how?" She asked grabbing her hair band pulling out her bun and letting her long hair free. She ran her fingers through it and then went back to the base of her roots and started massaging her scalp. Feeling that sweet relief you get after taking your hair down after a long day she let out a hmm of pleasure, "Mhmm."

"I'm not entirely sure," Daryl answered as he watched her, she was now running her finger through her hair again trying to work out knots without hurting her hair too much, "You don't really act like the other women here."

"I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment," She laughed slightly, she didn't know where he was coming from or even what he was trying to say.

"Well, it's definitely not a insult," Daryl set his plate down and grabbed his bottle of water and took a long swig before continuing to speak, "I don't think any of these other women would have drug back a 200 plus pound buck back by themselves. "

Stasia looked at Daryl right in the eye. He might have been right, after all he knew everyone in the group better than her.

"Also, the women try to make it seem like there is nothing wrong, they try to have this housewife thing going on. " Daryl continued, "But you, you know things aren't the same as they were before."

She arched her eyebrow. Why would anyone want to keep things the same, or try to at least. She made that mistake with Cassie. If Stasia had let the girl see how much the world had really changed maybe she would still be alive. She looked at the fire, "It's pointless and dangerous to act like things never changed."

Daryl nodded in agreement and started to poke at the fire again. Stasia looked back at where the rest of the group was. Shane was kicking out the fire where Rick and his family had sat, T-dog was also kicking out a fire. Dale was climbing into the RV and Rick was still sitting on top of the RV.

Stasia heard Daryl kicking dirt onto the fire. She turned and watched him. He had kicked out most of the fire, only a few little bits still burned. There really wasn't really enough light for her to see the rest of the camp. So she focused her eyes on the glowing embers. She looked at Daryl, "So where did you learn .

Daryl looked from the fire to her, "My dad taught me and my brother." That was all he said. He didn't add to it and she didn't really think that he wanted to. It was something about the way he said it, so she didn't pry.

She looked down at her legs, her tanned skin had a red tint to them from the burning embers. She sighed and the stood up, "I'm going lay down, I don't want to keep people up with our talking."

Daryl nodded at her and then kicked the rest of the fire out. Stasia stooped and went into her tent. She sat on the edge of her cot and untied her boots, slipping them off as she laid back on her pillow. She put her arms behind her head and stared at the top of her tent. She sighed, reaching her hand to touch where the rope had burned her. She chewed at the inside of her bottom lip thinking about how Daryl had bandaged her burn again. Still not entirely sure why he did it, knowing full well she was capable. Maybe that was just something that people who were in a group did.

Even though she had that short nap, Stasia's eyes started getting heavy again. Before she could even stop it she was asleep.

_The wind was blowing lightly. Stasia sat and watched as Cassie, Carl, and Sofia played tag. Rick and Lori were holding each other watching their son play big smiles on their faces. Carol was sitting alone, with her timid look on her face. She looked like she thought Sofia could slip and fall and die. She seemed too over protective of a mother. _

_ Stasia looked back at the playing children, someone was standing next to her now. She looked to her left and Daryl was standing there watching the children play as well. Daryl looked down at her and smiled. She smiled back, "It's great to see the kids playing." Daryl said, but his mouth was moving with the words. This didn't seem to bother Stasia though. _

_ "Yeah, good to see them having fun." Stasia looked back at the kids feeling Daryl snake his arm around her shoulders. She looked down at his hand on her shoulder. Something seemed different, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Stasia looked up at Daryl, "What are you doing?"_

_ "What are you talking about?" He answered, as he looked at her smiling. Then there was a scream. Daryl didn't look from her though. Stasia looked from where the screaming had come from. Carl and Sofia were standing side by side with their backs to her. She couldn't see what they were looking at._

_ Stasia wiggled out from under Daryl's arm and started walking towards the children. Where was Cassie? _

_ She grabbed Sofia shoulder and guided her out the way. Cassie was laying in the grass face down, her hands clawing at the ground below her. There was a gurgling noise coming from her. Stasia made Carl and Sofia move. They ran to their parents and stood with them watching her. They all had gotten closer to her, just watching._

_ "Cassie?" Stasia reached out and gently shook the girl's shoulder. Stasia wasn't answered by words though, just the same gargling noise. She gently started to turn Cassie over to face up. Stasia wasn't met with the bright happy rosy cheeked face that Cassie had though. Her pupils and irises where clouded, and the whites of her eyes were yellowed. Her skin color was pale and her teeth were yellow and gums were dark and bloody. _

_ "What?! How can this even be." Stasia said aloud, she looked over the little girl and felt hot tears burning her eyes._

_ Cassie then reached up and grabbed Stasia's shoulders and tried to bite her neck. Stasia had to use all her strength to keep the girl from getting close to her neck. But she was failing. Cassie was snarling and snapping at Stasia's face and not giving in. _

_ Stasia reached and grabbed a gun that appeared on the ground next to her. She didn't question it, she put the barrel to Cassie's head and pulled the trigger. She didn't notice the sound of the gun or the little girl's head cracking. _

_ Stasia dropped the gun and stared straight ahead not looking at the girls face. She just held her tight and rocked the little dead girl back and forth…_

Stasia sat up quickly and looked around the tent, "Fuck…" She whispered to herself. She rubbed away the tears as she swung her legs over the side of her cot and leaned on her knees supporting her head in her hands. She took a deep breath and let it go. That wasn't the first time she dreamt about Cassie. She was surprised she didn't know it was a dream though. Normally she was able to tell that it was a dream.

She looked up and at the flap of her tent. She reached over and opened it up looking out, the sky wasn't dark, but it wasn't quite sunrise yet. She let the flap go. She stood up and flipped her hair over and pulled it up into her messy bun on top of her head.

How could she not know that that was a dream? People from the group were in it. She was slightly made at herself for letting it get the best of her. She sat back on her cot and held her head in her hands again trying her best to keep her tears back. She had cried enough for Cassie.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please Review!**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: Hi everyone. Thanks for stopping by my new chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for the Review SillyGabby. Please keep them coming**_

_**Everyone else, please review.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters, I only own my own ideas and character, Anastasia (Stasia)**_

_**Enjoy!**_

"Alright," Rick said pointing down at the map at a town, "We're going to go to this town here, hit the stores and see what we can find."

Stasia had her hands on her hips shifting from foot to foot, listening to where they were going to go and what they were looking for. Lori had come to Stasia earlier before they had started planning out the scavenge; Carl and Sofia were getting bigger as kids did. Lori asked that Stasia try and find them some clothes. Of course Stasia had agreed to do so. Not because she was the newest to the group, but because she like the kids even though she didn't have to much time with them.

"Stasia," Daryl caught her attention, She looked at him, "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded to him and she started following him to the jeep, it was just Rick, Shane, Daryl, and her again. Stasia climbed in the back of the jeep and sat behind Rick who was driving. She watched Daryl in the peripheral of her vision as he got in next to her. When he sat down she pulled out her gun from her thigh holster, which felt strange against her skin, she took the mag out and inspected her bullets. She didn't normally wear shorts, mostly because she didn't have any since the outbreak. She put the mag back in her gun, then put it back in her holster after making sure the safety was on. She looked up and noticed Shane was looking at her through the visors mirror. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. If it wasn't Lori he was staring at it was her. Except when Shane stared at Stasia he had a look of malice in his eyes. She wasn't scared of him, but he sure did know how to make her uncomfortable.

Daryl must have noticed her shifting, he patted her knee and squeezed it lightly then removed his hand. Stasia looked over at him and smiled a little bit. She thought that maybe that was a gesture of 'it's okay' or something. She wasn't sure.

The town was maybe 45 minutes to an hour away from camp. They had pulled up close to what looked like had been a department store, the sign was broken and spray painted so there was no way of knowing what it was for sure. Stasia just knew that she would find the clothes Lori had asked her to get in there.

She got out the Jeep and held her bow with and arrow ready to be drawn back. She looked around the area before she went off into the store.

"Stasia!" Rick called out to her, he ran up to her side grabbing her shoulder to make her stop, 'You have to remember that you are with us now. We do things in groups, we never go off alone," Stasia turned her head to look at him, Rick continued, "Now I know you have been on your own for a long time. I know you can handle yourself. But we're a group and we stay like a group."

Stasia nodded and waited for the rest to catch up. Daryl handed her a duffle bag. Shane stopped next to Rick and put his hands on his hips, "Rick if she wants to go alone let her." There was something about the way that he said it, and the way he was looking that didn't sit right with her.

"No," Rick looked at Shane, "This is how we do things and we're not going to change that."

Shane shook his head and then motioned for Rick to follow him into the store, "Well then lets get going."

It seemed to her that Shane wanted her to go alone, whether it was so she would be left behind or what. She didn't know. She didn't care. Stasia turned to Daryl and nodded for him to go in first.

The store was two stories high and was filled with huge departments. They had walked in the, well what had been the tool department. There wasn't much left. Maybe a few wrenches and some PVC piping, but nothing that they needed or could use. She would put money that the generators were the first to go.

She watched as Rick and Shane went to the right until they went out of her sight around a corner.

"Let's go to the kids clothes first," Stasia said to Daryl as she looked over at him, "If you don't mind."

"Alright, let's go." He started in the direction of the escalators.

Of course they didn't work. There was blood stained on the glass railing. A few disemboweled bodies scattered around the area. There wasn't any sign of walkers around, but they could be very quiet. Where there wasn't food around, they just kind of stood there staring at walls or walking around aimlessly. You could never let your guard down anymore. Unless you had a nice little tree house way out of the reach of the Walkers. Stasia missed her tree house. She felt liked by most of the group. She knew that Shane hated her guts. She didn't do anything to him, she tried to be nothing but nice, at first that is, but he just radiated that she could probably never like him. Even though she knew that everyone was a completely different person before the outbreak, she knew she still probably wouldn't have liked Shane.

"I'll be over there looking for Carl's clothes." Daryl grabbed her attention, jabbing his thumb over in the direction of the boys, which was just across the aisle from the girls.

Stasia nodded her head, "Okay." She walked off to find Sofia some clothes. She had no idea what size the girl wore, but she was pretty skinny. She held up a plain soft blue t-shirt, it seemed like it would be a little big for her, but that was the point so she had room to grow. There wasn't much there, but there was still a lot compared to her town. She dropped the duffle bag on the ground and started to fold the shirt. She put it at the bottom of the bag and started looking through the shirts again, this time finding a pink one with a big rose on the front. She folded that one too, then let it drop into the bag. She then found 2 pairs of shorts and 4 pairs of jeans. She had also found some sweaters and a jacket. The winter months would be coming soon, she would need it.

"They didn't have much that would fit Carl." Daryl stood behind her holding some clothes in his hands.

Stasia grabbed a shirt and looked at the tag and then held it up, "This will fit him now, but not for long. Boys tend to grow faster then girls do. We should find him something a size bigger." She chunked the shirt to the floor and then grabbed the pants he had in his arms. Same thing there too. Just the right size, for now. She laughed a little bit and tapped Daryl's shoulder, "You tried."

"He he ha ha." Daryl sarcastically replied, "You find something then." He had a smirk on his face. Stasia grabbed the bag off the floor and grabbed him by the wrist and playfully pulled him along.

This was strange for her, she wasn't entirely sure why she was being so friendly now. She didn't want to be rude but didn't want to be to close either. When they walked into the boys section she dropped his wrist and the bag and started looking through the clothes that where left on the racks. She instantly found 2 t-shirts and a button up shirt, "Here fold these." She handed Daryl the shirts. He looked at her with a funny look, then shook his head slinging his crossbow over his shoulder and started trying to fold them as neatly as she had folded Sofia's.

She had also found Carl a jacket and luckily for him she found 3 long sleeve shirts. She turned to hand those to Daryl and he was still folding the shirts she had gave him the first time. She let out a little chuckle and then slung all but one shirt over her shoulder and started to fold them dropping them in the bag after she was done.

"You women are much better at folding clothes." Daryl spoke up as he watched her fold the clothes.

"Now that is an unfair stereotype. Just cause you can't fold clothes to save someone's life doesn't mean all men can't" She smirked at him and grabbed some of the clothes off his shoulder and helping him fold them.

"I can fold clothes, jus-" Daryl started but was cut off by Stasia

"You just can't fold them efficiently. " She eyed the folded, but not neatly and compactly folded shirt.

She took the shirt from him and folded it neatly and tightly, chewing on her bottom lip. She put it in the duffle bag. She looked up at Daryl. He was looking at her. She furrowed her brows and then turned from him, "Let's go look for clothes for everyone else." And with that she grabbed the bag and headed into the direction of the adult clothing.

She had that feeling in her stomach again, he wasn't even that close to her. She knew this would be a problem. She would have to stop talking to him and spending so much time around him, the last thing she wanted was to get attached to someone.

She stopped at the women's clothing and dropped the bag on the floor, she pointed at the men's clothes, "Why don't you go find some clothes." Daryl stared at her for a second and then nodded slowly and then turned and started to the other side and started looking at clothes. She walked into the women's section and started grabbing clothes off the racks and folding and putting in the bag.

She looked up over the rack to look at Daryl. She chewed her lip as she watched him as he grabbed clothes off the hangers. Even though she hadn't talked to him much, there was something about him that intrigued her. She did want to get to know him, and then she didn't. She was just filled with all kinds of emotions, a ridiculous amount at once. She didn't know what to do with herself.

She saw a table that had tanks folded on them and she walked over squatting next to it looking through them looking for the sizes that the women needed. She was grabbing all colors and prints.

"Stasia!" Daryl's voice called to her, "Where did you go?"

She stood and looked at him, "Where did you think I went?" She asked sounding a bit more sarcastic than she was trying to sound.

"Well I look away for a second and then next you're not there," He walked over to her his arm full of partially folded clothes, dropping them in the bag as he passed it, "You like to go off alone, what was I supposed to think."

She arched an eyebrow at this, "Want me to wear a bell around my neck?"

"That might work." He smiled, obviously he was joking.

Stasia cut a smile then grabbed the tanks and brought them over to where Daryl was standing and put them in the bag.

"Is there anything else you can think of that we needed?" Stasia asked as she hauled the duffle bag up and held it on her good shoulder.

Daryl smiled a little bit and let out a small chuckle, probably a internal joke, "Nah, let's go back and get this in the Jeep." He held his hand out for her to go first.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading **_


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N: Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by to read! Thanks for my new reviews. SillyGabby, Don't worry, there will be some altercation between Stasia and Shane soon. **_

_**Ami Mikan: My first constructive criticism! Some times i feel too that he is too friendly, i am trying to remedy this. Although in the show, to me at least, he does go from a ass (mostly after CDC you see this) to this nice and respected member of the group. So if you have any ideas on how I can fix this PM me and give them to me!**_

_**That goes to anyone really, if you have any ideas or wants PM me.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or it's characters, I only own my own ideas and character, Anastasia(Stasia)**_

Stasia put the bag filled with clothes down in the back of the Jeep, then looked around. Daryl was leaning against the Jeep, picking underneath his nails with the tip of one of his arrows. Stasia pulled herself up to sit in the back next to Daryl. She reached for her Altoids tin and pulled out a cigarette and put it in her mouth, "So this was painfully boring." She said as she pulled out her lighter and flicked a flame and lit her cigarette.

"Huh?" Daryl said as he looked at her.

"I think this is the first time we didn't see a single Geek. Not that it's a bad thing," She took a long drag and exhaled the smoke, "I guess I just got used to having at least one or two around."

Daryl snorted and grabbed her cigarette out her mouth as she was about to take another drag, "Hey!" Stasia said as she watched him bring it to his mouth and take a drag," Don't you have your own?"

"They are at camp." He said as he let the smoke out.

"And you didn't think you could ask me for one or something?" She flicked his ear making him flinch and laugh a bit.

He held the cigarette back to her, "Want it back?"

"Keep it." She had already pulled out a new cigarette and was lighting it, "Not a big germaphob are you?"

"Doesn't bother me none," Daryl said as her gave her a look, she couldn't tell what that was supposed to mean. She just took a drag and stared at him as she let the smoke out her nose so she didn't blow the smoke into his face.

"You normally steal peoples cigarettes that they were smoking?" She asked him as she flicked the ashes off her cigarette.

"Nope, so far you're the one and only." He answered.

"Well then I guess I'm honored." Stasia said jokingly as she held her hand over her heart in exaggeration.

Daryl smirked as he took another drag of the cigarette. Stasia looked forward at the deserted street. Abandoned cars littered the streets, along with other miscellaneous things that people thought they would need. Funny what people thought they couldn't do without. There were all kind of electronics and other things that were useless after the end of the world.

Stasia brought her cigarette to her mouth again and took her drag, "What are they looking for, they've been in there for a long while" Stasia asked turning to look at Daryl and then the store, "Think we should go look?"

"Nah," Daryl said looking over his shoulder at the store, "They'll be along."

She turned her attention back to Daryl, "Alright then," She rubbed the back of her neck, "I guess we would have heard something if they were in trouble huh."

Daryl just nodded his head, puffing on his cigarette. Stasia took her last drag from her cigarette and flicked it away. She looked to Daryl who was looking at her as he exhaled smoke from his lungs through his nose.

"I get I'm a new face but do you have to stare at me all the time?" Stasia asked, her eyebrows raised.

Daryl just eyed her, he was about to open his mouth to say something when Rick and Shane came loudly out the department store.

"Ya'll got everything you could?" Rick asked them as he got close. Stasia and Daryl nodded. Stasia hopped out of her spot and got out the way so Shane could put their full bags in the back. He of course gave her a death stare. Stasia was starting to get fed up with Shane looking at her like that. She would eventually go off on him. She didn't know when though. She just hoped he stopped being a dick so she wouldn't have to kick his ass, "Alright well let get heading back."

Rick and Shane got in the front. Stasia and Daryl followed suit and hopped in the back. Rick started the Jeep and they took off. Stasia looked over at Daryl who was picking at his nails again. She didn't peg him as someone who liked to keep his nails clean. Maybe he didn't like the feel of things under his nails, or maybe, like her, he just did whatever he could to keep the boredom at bay.

She looked down at her own nails. They were clean, but that was because she unconsciously picked under her nails. It had become so routine that she didn't even notice herself doing it. She reached a hand up and felt where the bandage was that Daryl had put on her. It felt must better today. She rotated her shoulder, testing its range of motion, which was almost completely better. She still had a tinge that made her wince, but it was much better. She felt eyes on her and when she looked up, this time it wasn't Shane. She turned to face Daryl, but as she did he was turning his head to look to his right. It looked like he had a smile on his face.

They pulled up next to the RV. Stasia grabbed the top rail of the Jeep's top and pulled herself up as she jumped out over the side. She walked around the back meeting up with Daryl at the back. Rick was walking over Lori and Carl and Shane was slowly making his way back to Stasia and Daryl. He was walking with a 'I'm above all this' attitude. Stasia just wanted to slap that smug look off his face, and the only reason she didn't was because she didn't want to start any problems within the group.

Daryl opened the back door and swung it open. Stasia grabbed the top two bags. One that had the clothes that she and Daryl had gathered and the other was filled with whatever Shane and Rick had got. Daryl grabbed the bag Rick and Shane got and went to give it to Rick. This is when she fully noticed the bag full of rifles and other various guns. She looked curiously at it for a second.

"Don't even think about taking things that aren't yours," Shane said as he leaned against the truck, crossing his arms over his chest giving her a shit eating grin.

Stasia looked up at him with a look that said,' what the fuck is your problem?'. She took a deep breath in and tried to calm herself, "Have I do something to offend you in some way?" She said as nicely as she could possibly muster. She still had a hard edge to it.

"No," Shane answered as he spit at the ground, "I just don't like new faces." He poked her chest with his dirty finger.

She quickly snatched his finger from her chest and bent it in a way that it wasn't supposed to bend. That smug look left his face and was replaced with a look of surprise and pain "I don't much like your face either." And with that she let his finger go and walked away, Shane was shaking his finger out. His stare burning a hole in the back of her head as she walked over to Lori to give her the clothes.

Lori had thanked Stasia and Daryl for getting the clothes and went off with Carol and the kids to have them try them on. Shane was sitting with Rick, just sitting, Rick was actually looking over a map. '_And people thought I'd be a burden.'_ She thought to herself. T-dog, Glenn, and Dale were busying themselves. And Andrea sat at the top of the RV. Daryl had gone off hunting, he wouldn't let her go because her shoulder was still hurting. She guessed he did see her when she winced in the Jeep. She tried to ask Lori for something to do, but she had nothing for her, and neither did Rick.

Stasia walked to her tent grabbing her bag, stuffing a towel inside. She then headed for the tree line, looking around to make sure no one was looking and then dipped into the forest. The leaves crunching slightly under her, she wasn't really trying to be too quiet, but her father made sure that it was ingrained into her brain that she stays light footed. She walked a little while and then found the tree line again that opened to the river where she, Daryl, and Glenn had gotten the water. She dropped her bag and pulled out the towel laying it on top of the bag. She then sat next to it and untied her tick boots and pulled them off. The river was sparkling with the reflection of the sun, there was a huge rock that went pretty far out into the water. That would be a good place to put her guns, she didn't like having something to defend herself out of her reach. She took her socks off and stuffed them in her boots. She pulled her knives out from behind her and shoved them under her bag.  
>She then stood and walked to the water's edge and let the cool water lick her toes. She then waded out till the water was to her knees, taking off her thigh holsters and walked out to the rock, the water reaching her waist there. Her shorts and shirt filling with water. She then stroked out to the deeper water until it reached just under her breast. She wanted to make sure she could get to her guns if she needed to.<br>She started wiping the dirt and blood off her skin and doing her best to get it out her clothes. She took her hair down and then submerged to wet her hair. She shifted it under the water to get as much of the dirt and grime out of it. She missed showers every night. She came back up and started splashing water in her face, rubbing the dirt off her neck.

Once she felt clean enough, she started to peel the band-aid off her shoulder. Her rope burn had returned to the normal color of her skin and wasn't sore to the touch. As she ran her fingers over the burn a sound caught her ear.

She made her way back over to the rock where her guns were and grabbed one, cocking it. Ready for whatever it was.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review!**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N: It's here chapter 14, Please review and enjoy it!**_

_**SillyGabby: Don't worry we will get to it. Isn't there always a reason Shane is a dick? haha. I hope that I continue to entertain you. If ever I have something that you don't like, or feel is off character please PM me :)**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or it's characters just my own ideas and character Anastasia.**_

Stasia turned to the tree line and scanned the area. She didn't see anything. Maybe it was a squirrel she heard. And just as she was thinking that, Daryl walked out into the clearing from her right.

"You shouldn't be out here alone." He said as he got to the edge of the water.

Stasia sighed in relief and put her gun back on the rock, "Look who is talking."

"I'm not a woman." Daryl said mater of factly.

"And you think Walkers care if their meal is a woman or not?" Stasia took some offense to this. It was, to her, and sexist comment, "They just want to eat." She glared at him.

"I guess you have a point there, " He said watching her as she made it out the water and over to her bag, "But then again, you don't really need to worry about the dead."

She grabbed her towel and started to dry her hair. He wasn't wrong, it was the living you needed to worry about. She knew that oh too well. She always handled herself though when she crossed paths with some not so savory people, "I've told you before, " She pulled her damp hair up into her bun, "I've been alone a very long time, I can-"

"I'm not saying you can't take care of yourself," Daryl interrupted her, "If a group of people came at you, I'm sure you'd have trouble 'handling yourself', and I know both Rick and I would feel responsible."

She looked him up and down, "Why?"

"Well, I brought you here." He looked her in the eye," and Rick, being the leader- well that should be enough of a reason right there."

She started to chew her lip. She looked down at his side where the squirrel and a rabbits hung; she quickly changed the subject, "So, rabbit tonight huh?" She motioned to his kill with her hand.

He looked down at the strung up animals, "Yeah, caught a bunch in the traps I set."

Stasia bent slightly at the waist and put her holsters back on her thighs, then grabbed her bag and knives and motioned to the tree line, "Shall we head back to the camp."

Daryl held out his hand, "Ladies first." He had a smirk on his face. She shook her head and started off towards the camp, Daryl following close behind her.

Stasia was skinning a rabbit over the bucket she had previously cleaned the squirrels over. There was a small pail of water for her to clean her hands in when she was done next to her. She had a cigarette hanging from her lip. The smoke was burning her left eye so she had it closed. She told Daryl she would clean the kills and get them ready for cooking since he went out and caught them. After she had her first rabbit cleaned she put the now skinless and gutless body into a pot. She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand and took a drag of the cigarette, letting the smoke out she grabbed the next rabbit and started working on cleaning next one.

Sofia plopped down in front of Stasia with a disgusted look on her face, "That's gross."

Stasia looked at the little girl across from her, "It's good eating though," She was about to pull out the entrails of the rabbit, "are you sure you want to watch this?"

Sofia seemed to ponder this, "I don't mind."

Stasia shrugged her shoulders and shook her head a little bit letting out a amused chuckle. She went along with cleaning the rabbit.

"Ewwwwwwwww," The girl said dramatically. That made Stasia laugh again and shake her head, "why doesn't that gross you out?"

Stasia dropped the intestines into the bucket, sucking smoke from her cigarette and blowing it out the corner of her mouth, "I've been doing it a long time, and we have to eat, right?" She smiled at the little girl.

Sofia looked from the rabbit to Stasia and said, "Yeah. How long?"

"How long what?" Stasia dumped the rest of the insides into the bucket and looked at Sofia.

"How long have you been doing this," Sofia motioned to the rabbit with her tiny hand.

"Oh, um, since I was about your age, what are you 10?" Stasia started to skin the rabbit.

"NO!" Sofia said loudly, she sounded offened like many kids did when you guessed their age too young, "I'm 12."

"Oh, well I'm sorry." Stasia laughed a little bit, taking her last drag of her cigarette, flicking it away after knocking the cherry off and squashing it with her boot.

"Sofia, you aren't bothering Stasia are you?" Carol had walked up and put her hand on Sofia's shoulder, but was looking at Stasia for the answer.

"She isn't bothering me, just askin me about myself. Being curious." Stasia smiled at Carol assuring her that the child was fine and not at all a bother.

"Well," Carol looked down at Sofia this time, "It's time for your tutoring."

"UUggghhh, ooookayyy." Sofia groaned, stood and started slowly walking to where Lori and Carl where.

"I'm sorry if she was bugging you, Stasia," Carol was watching Sofia walk, the girl dragging her feet.

Stasia looked up at Carol, "She wasn't bothering me at all."

There was something about Carol, she seemed like she was broken. She had this timid look about her. She wasn't fully sure what it was. She didn't want to know to be honest.

Carol sat next to Stasia when Sofia sat with Lori and Carl and had started to read from the book Lori and handed her, "I wanted to thank you for getting those clothes for Sofia." Carol looked at Stasia.

"It was no problem at all," Stasia met her gaze, "She was going to need them eventually."

Carol looked down at her fidgeting fingers and then back up to Stasia, she smiled a small smile then stood, "Well, I have to go help with tutoring," She patted her thighs awkwardly and then walked over to where the children and Lori was.

Stasia yanked away from the last of the skin dropping the flesh into the bucket. She tossed the rabbit into the pot with the other rabbits. She grabbed the next rabbit and stopped just as she was about to cut open it's belly, she looked up and around at the camp.

She studied each person. The people she liked, and the person she didn't. Her eye's fell upon Rick; he was speaking with Dale. Rick had his hands on his hips, standing relaxed. Dale was saying something while rubbing his beard.

Stasia looked to where Andrea was, on top of the RV, she wasn't doing anything too exciting she was just sitting in a lawn chair looking over the area. There wasn't much going on, Stasia was sure she had to be bored.

Lori, Carol, and the children were looking over books and notepads. T-dog and Glenn where stacking bunches of wood, making piles to light for the fire that night. Shane was doing something under the hood of the Jeep. Stasia secretly wished for it to fall.

"Are these ready to be cooked?" Daryl had walked up and tapped the pot filled with the skinned carcasses of the rabbits, in his hands were large wooden skewers.

Stasia looked up at Daryl and nodded. Daryl then sat and took a skinned rabbit and started to put the skewers through the back of the rabbit, you can guess where, and out through its mouth. Stasia had started to gut the rabbit she had in her hand, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she concentrated on her work. She had pulled out all then uneatable parts of it and started skinning it.

"So, the CDC. What was that like?" Stasia asked Daryl, looking over at him briefly then back down at her rabbit continuing to cut and pull the skin from it's flesh.

"The only good things I can say about the CDC, is that there was electricity, hot water, food, and booze." He had finished skewering the first rabbit leaning the wood against his leg so the meat wouldn't touch the dirt.

"Hot water," Stasia smiled a little bit, you never knew how much you took hot water for granted until you didn't have it anymore, "There was nothing better than a hot shower after a long day," she put the rabbit, now skinless, into the bucket. Grabbed the last one and started working on gutting that one, "Except maybe some Jack Daniels."

Daryl nodded his head, she guessed in agreement. He had grabbed the next skewer and started putting the rabbit on it. Stasia dumped the innards into the bucket and then looked at him, "So that guy that was there, I can't remember what T-dog said his name was, " she looked back at the rabbit and started the skinning process. To her, rabbits where harder to skin than a squirrel for some reason. She never really liked it, "He had no idea what caused it, the whole coming back from the dead thing?"

"Jenner," Daryl had finished the second rabbit and was working on the third. Stasia was glad she wasn't doing that, "Doesn't matter what his name was now, but no. Just that only the brain stem came back, or something like that."

"Ah, fuck," Stasia groaned looking at her finger where she cut it slightly. It wasn't bad, but it still bled.

"What happened?" Daryl asked her eyeing her finger, grabbing the rabbit from her other hand finishing ripping off the skin and skewing it on the wooden stick.

"I just nicked my finger," She stuck her hands in the pail with the water and got all the rabbits blood off her hand and looked back at her finger, just as she thought it was only just a few layers of skin deep. Nothing to be worried about, She held her index finger to Daryl, "See?"

"Better make sure that doesn't get infected," He said grabbing the skewers and standing.

"I'll be fine, I've had worse." She stood also, grabbing the bucket with the entrails and skins, "Where have y'all been dumping this shit?"

"Let me go give these to T-dog and I'll come show you." Daryl started to walk off.

"I don't need you to come, I-" She started to say.

Daryl turned his head over his shoulder to look at her as he walked, "I don't care."

Stasia sighed and rolled her eyes, she didn't think she would get used to having to always have someone with her.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review**_


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N: Thanks to my new followers and favorites and to my new reviewers! Please enjoy this chapter and review! Thanks!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or it's characters, I only own my ideas and character, Anastasia(Stasia)**_

Daryl and Stasia had been walking for about two hours. There had been 2 or 3 walker once they got closer to where they dumped the guts and skins. The smell must have drawn them there, but at least they were a good 6 miles away, maybe a little more.  
>When they had reached the little clearing that they were dumping the wastes at. There were 6 walkers surrounding the pile of entrails and skins. Stasia set the bucket down lightly, grabbing her two buck knifes from behind her. Daryl had his crossbow raised and shot one of the walkers through the back of its head, out through it's eye. It fell forward alerting the other walkers to Daryl's and Stasia's presence. They all turned and started snarling at them, slowly wobbly standing. A few walking fast, 2 dragging a foot behind them as they walked, and one who dragging itself along, it's legs broken and unusable.<p>

Daryl reloaded his crossbow, as Stasia charged a Walker driving her knife into it's skull. Daryl had his bow loaded and shot down the closest walker to Stasia. She pounced up as Daryl was loading his next arrow, she ran to the next walker which wasn't even 2 feet from her. She grabbed it's outstretched hand and pulled it into her knife which found it's mark in it's eye. Daryl shot the next one, the only one left was the walker with the broken legs. It was still dragging itself along, snarling and groaning. Stasia pulled her knife from the walkers head and looked down at the crawling walker. She shook her head and then brought the knife down into it's head. Daryl had grabbed the bucket and bumped the entails out over the rest, and was grabbing his arrows out of the walker. Stasia walked up to the one that would have got her had it not been for Daryl shooting it and pulled the arrow from its head.

"It's almost like we're feeding them," She turned to look at Daryl, "If you think about it."

Daryl nodded his head, "Yea, I'd rather them here though." He kicked one of the walkers in the body.

Stasia nodded and held out the arrow to him, "You're right about that," She looked down at the last walker she killed. It's legs broken in horrible twisted ways. The left shin broken in the middle, the shin bone poking out the skin. The right leg was even more gruesome, it looked as if it were completely smashed the skin busted open in more than one place. It looked as if the foot was ripped off. He must have had something extremely heavy fall on his leg and then when trying to get out had his foot tore off. Stasia shuddered at the thought.

Daryl took the arrow from her, "Let's start heading back."

Stasia looked back at Daryl from the walker, "Yeah, let's go, it's getting dark." And with that she turned and started walking back from where they came, She stopped at the tree line and waited till Daryl had gotten closer to her, "Do you think we should move the dumping spot," she stuck her thumb back to where they had just left, "farther into the woods? You don't think it's too close to camp do you?"

"Nah, we won't be here much longer anyway," Daryl looked to Stasia," Maybe a day or two more before we move camp again."

Stasia chewed on the inside of her cheek, "Don't you ever get tired of moving all the time?"

Daryl looked at her, "we have to."

Stasia kicked a stick out of her way, "Y'all find somewhere to hold up eventually."

Daryl scoffed, "Yeah, sure." He said sarcastically.

Stasia chewed her lower lip. Why was it so hard to believe they could find somewhere? She had; she planned to again. She couldn't stand having to sleep with one eye open. She didn't like the constant moving. She missed her tree house. She missed her stability.

#

Daryl and Stasia had gotten back to camp and had sat by Glenn with their fire. The sky was darkening with dark clouds, the sun said it was probably around 5 or 6 pm. A cans of baked beans, corn, and a small can of greens were sitting in the fire. Daryl grabbed his portion of meat off the rabbit that they were passing around, and handed it to Stasia. She grabbed a chunk and chewed the gamey meat. Glenn was chattering away about something to do with a gas run tomorrow. Stasia already knew about it. She was going with them. It was to be Daryl, Glenn, Shane, and her. While they would be getting gas the rest of the group would be packing up and getting ready to move to where ever they would camp next.

Why he chattered like that she would never know. He had mentioned to her in another conversation that he was a glass half full person, one of those always seeing the bright side of things. Although, Stasia herself, liked to see the bright side, she found it futile to do it all the time like Glenn tried to do.

Stasia gave the rabbit back to Daryl to pass over to Glenn. She grabbed thecan of corn and started to eat them. Daryl grabbed the baked beans.

"Oh yum," Glenn said, Stasia looked over at him to see a grimace on his face, "I've _always_ liked spinch."

Stasia couldn't help but laugh when Glenn took a bite and made a face and gagged a little bit, "Here," She said in between laughs, "Lets trade, I like spinach."

"Thanks!" Glenn happily took the corn for the spinach. He hummed in enjoyment as he took a bit of the corn, "This is much better."

Stasia laughed again. Taking a bite of the spinach, she was a bit taken aback by the taste. Like even before the virus, it had been sitting on the shelf of the store for a long time, but she still ate it. It was better than nothing. '_You need your veggies'_ She kept saying to herself to help her to keep the will to eat the spinach.

Glenn must have taken notice, "_'oh I like spinach.'_" He teased her with a silly tone in his voice, he began laughing. She laughed along with him. Daryl, no matter how much it looked like he tried, he couldn't help but be caught up by the contagion that was laughter, he had a smile on his face as he listened and watched the joking going on.

Stasia finished her can of spinach and rubbed her stomach as she leaned back on her arms, Daryl had a cigarette and was poking the fire with a long stick, Glenn was still just chattering away about what they would have to do tomorrow while they were looking for gas. Where the best spot would be, how much gas was needed. Things he had already said, just reiterating. Stasia wasn't really listening.

"Stasia, would you help me take the clothes down?" Lori walked up to Stasia holding a empty basket in her arms, "Carol is getting the children ready for bed, and Andrea," She looked at the RV, "well Andrea is busy. It's about to rain and I don't want to have to wash the clothes again."

"No problem." Stasia hopped up and dusted her butt of the leaves and dirt and then followed Lori to the clothes line.

"So you're going with Shane and them tomorrow for gas right?" Lori asked as they reached the clothes line and started to pull clothes and fold them.

Stasia looked at Lori, "Yeah, why?"

Lori sighed, "I don't think Shane has taken to you quite yet."

"I don't give two shits if Shane doesn't like me." Stasia was folding the clothes that Daryl and her had gotten when they were at the department store.

"Everyone else seems to like you," Lori smiled as she looked at Stasia, "Well, they do like you, Rick has talked about how much of a help you are," Lori's face turned serious, "Has Shane ever done or said anything to you?"

Stasia raised her eyebrow to this, "He talks a lot of shit, and to be honest he seems paranoid." Lori didn't say anything to her, Stasia stopped folding the shirt she had in her hands and looked at Lori, putting a hand on Lori's shoulder, "Has Shane done anything to you? I've noticed him staring like a hungry dog a few times."

Lori looked as if she was shocked, "Uh, um, no no." She stammered, "He hasn't done anything."

Stasia was about to say something else, but a big fat raindrop landed on her forehead making her and Lori hurry and get the rest of the clothes.

After they had the clothes folded and got them in the basket, Lori quickly thanked Stasia and hurried with the basket to her and Ricks tent. Stasia ran back to her tent getting drenched. She flung open the tent flap and hurried inside. Shaking from the chill of the rain. She sat on the floor looking out the tent flap and started to untie her boots.

"You're in the wrong tent." Stasia jumped at the sound of Daryl's voice.

**_A/n: Thanks for reading! Here is a little silly trivia about me when I was writing this chapter (Along with all other chapters actually) every time I type Glenn's name I type it Gleen! Ha so if you ever see that you know the dyslexia got me again!_**

**_I hope you enjoyed and please review!_**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Hey everyone! sorry about the long wait there. It was a pain in the ass to get the internet set up! So here is the newest chapter, and I'm so sorry I didn't get much of any new chapters written. I was so swamped with unpacking and dealing with the damn cable people! DAMN THE CABLE PEOPLE! LOL!**

**By the way when I went to upload this the little copy and paste thing looks different so I hope this all came out ok!**

**Anyway! enjoy the new chapter! Please Review guys!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it characters! I just own Anastasia and my own thoughts!**

Stasia looked at Daryl laying in his cot, holding a book titled, _The Case of the Missing Man, _"Oh, shit. I'm sorry." She stopped untying her boots, "I wasn't really looking, it's raining pretty hard."

"It's fine," Daryl laid his book on his chest, he reached for a towel and threw it to Stasia.

She draped the towel over her head, "So a reader, hmm?" She nudged her head at the book laying on his chest, "I haven't found too many books, the ones I did have I read a million times."

Daryl looked down at the book on his chest, "Yeah, a lil bit. I don't really have too much time to," he looked back at her.

"Well don't let me keep you from it," She looked out the tent flap, "The rain looks like it is slacking, I'll go in my own tent." She put the towel down on the little table that was next to the exit and before Daryl could say anything she was out the tent and rushing to her own.

Once in her own tent, she let out a sigh. She didn't really want to run out into the rain again, but she didn't want to keep Daryl from reading his book. She sat on the ground and took off her boots and wet clothes. She shivered a little bit as the wind blew through the tent flap and hurried to her cot and snuggled under the blankets.

Stasia grabbed pulled the blanket up to her nose and held it tight to her. Still cold, she felt a slight shiver up her spine. She breathed in the smell of the blanket, it smelt of outside and a faint sent of some kind of detergent. She closed her eyes started thinking about everything that had happened and all the people she was starting to get to know. Soon she lost her fight with sleep.

_ Stasia sat on her porch with a tall glass filled to the top with ice and sweet tea. A red straw sticking out the top and a lemon wedge sitting on the rim of the glass. She brought the straw to her lips and took a long satisfying sip, cooling her from the humid heat of the day. The sun was bright and unforgiving, but no matter the heat, Stasia loved the way it felt on her skin and the way that it made her skin a beautiful bronzed color.  
>"I got 5 rabbits," A voice said, it sounded like Daryl's, but she wasn't sure. Stasia looked at where the voice came from and the first thing she saw was the rabbits tied up by the neck on a long orange and yellow striped nylon rope. She then looked up at the face of the man who was talking to her. He looked like Daryl, but something was off, so she wasn't sure what to think of it.<em>

_"Well, that's good…?" She wasn't sure what to even say back to him. She didn't know why they would need to have rabbits; didn't she have a fridge full of food?_

_ "We're going to eat good tonight!" A voice came suddenly from her left. Stasia looked over to where the voice was coming from, it sounded familiar but she couldn't place where she had heard it before, "Stasia, why don't you help Daryl clean those?" The voice came from a Asian guy who she instantly recognized as Glenn. _

_She took a long sip from her sweet tea and set it down on a side table that had mysteriously appeared to her right and stood from her chair and followed Daryl off the porch. As her feet hit the ground the porch evaporated into a brownish fog and floated away. _

_Stasia watched it as the fog that once was her house disappear. She started to think that, that was a very strange thing for a house to do. Once the fog had gone, she looked around to see that her neighborhood wasn't her neighborhood at all, but thick woods._

_She turned on her heel and scanned the trees for Daryl, "Daryl!?" She tried to shout, but it only came out as a whisper. She tried to shout his name again, but the result was still the same; nothing more than a whisper left her lips. She felt panic rise up from her stomach to her chest. She looked down at herself. She was in dirty clothes that were stained with blood. She let out a gasp of shock as she ran her fingers over the fresh blood. She felt her hands begin to tremble. There was something in her hands that wasn't there before. A large hunting knife with blood and what looked like human flesh was on the blade. She instantly dropped the knife and took 2 steps back, hitting someone square in the chest as she did. She turned to see Daryl standing tall over her with a worried look on his face,_

_"What's the matter?" He asked putting a hand on her shoulder._

_"What the hell is going on? Why am I covered in blood?" She asked the panic getting stronger._

_Daryl pointed to his right at a body that lay on the ground, it was the size of a child. Stasia started to shake her head, "No, no, no, no." She started repeating, she recognized the body as Cassie._

_"She would have killed you if you hadn't, you know that." Daryl patted Stasia's shoulder, "You need to get it together. We have to go."_

_Stasia knelt to the ground and hot tears fell from her eyes. A rustling from where Cassie's body was caught her attention, she looked over to see Cassie pulling herself off the ground and starting to walk over to where Stasia was kneeling, getting faster with every step. Her little face yellowed and bloody with a huge knife wound in her right eye, making the eyeball ooze its insides out down her cheek, mixing with the blood. Cassie also had a huge bite mark on the front of her neck exposing the windpipe. _

_Stasia gasped and felt the tears even hotter on her face, her panic uncontrollable now. Daryl grabbed Stasia's arm and pulled her to her feet, "Run!" _

_Stasia listened to him, but it felt as if she was trying to run through deep mud, her feet dragging behind her, and no matter how hard she tried to pump her legs faster, it just didn't seem to work. Cassie was running now like a lunatic. Her little mouth that used to look like a sweet little rosebud now in a hideous snarl, exposing her bloody teeth and gums._

_Stasia felt her body shaking, _"Wake up Anastasia!" _It sounded like Daryl, but she didn't see him anywhere, _"Damnit, Stasia, you're going to wake everyone up!" _She was shaking harder, and then she realized that she was dreaming. Why couldn't she have realized it sooner? It could have saved her a lot of heart break._

Stasia's eyes shot open. She sat up quickly and grabbed Daryl's hand off her shoulders. The dream had seemed so real to her, she wasn't sure if she was really awake now or not. She wiped her hands over her wet cheeks and began to calm down a bit. Her heart rate was slowing back to it's normal pace.

Daryl just let her have her time to calm down then he spoke quietly to her, "Are you okay?"

Stasia looked up at him, her cheeks still red and damp from her fit she had, "Yeah," She ran her finger through her hair, the roots damp with sweat, "It was just a bad dream."

"It sounded like a little more than a bad dream," Daryl said matter of factly, "I could hear you from my tent tossing and turning and groaning. I didn't know what was going on," he rubbed the back of his head, "to be honest I thought that you might have been getting hurt of somethin."

"It was just a bad dream," She hugged her knees and rested her chin on them. What had made her think about Cassie? Sure there was Sofia, but after the, what was it now almost a week, she hadn't had a problem with it. Now that she thought about it, she didn't have a nightmare about Cassie since about 3 months after Cassie. After night after night of nightmares about the child, she was hoping they had finally stopped.

"Well, uh, we're going look for gas tomorrow. You're still coming right." Daryl asked changing the subject.

Stasia smiled a little bit, it seemed to her that he was trying to get her to think about something else. She could have been totally wrong, but she was glad about the sudden change of subject , "Yeah, I don't really want to be in the Jeep with Shane though. " she scoffed like a kid does and felt a little bit of laughter swelling her stomach.

"I don't blame ya, I never liked the guy." Daryl stood up, "Well, I better get back to bed. You going to be alright?"

Stasia raised an eyebrow at him and then smiled small, "Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks"

Daryl nodded his head and then left the tent. Stasia laid back down on her cot and snuggled her pillow. She took a deep breath in and tried to keep her mind as far away from Cassie as she could. She only allowed her mind to think about Daryl and the one other person in the group she considered a friend, Glenn.

She had no more dreams of Cassie that night, to her relief.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope y'all enjoyed it! please let me know what you think in a review!**


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